Illusione Orale
by UniversalOverlordess
Summary: He could hear his Froggy's screams from the other room and it made his blood burn. If he was certain about one thing, it was this: They were about to find out why he was called Prince the Ripper.
1. Them

Title: Illusione Orale

Summary: When an old, rival Mafia Family begins to grow a bio-engineered weapon to completely wipe out all of the Vongola, no one takes the threat seriously. It's only when the thing begins to kill that they realize their only hope lies in the legend of a single emotion of pity, that was sent down from the stars to save them. BelxFran, and others.

-hides in a corner- So, my voice is squeaking right now; I'm so nervous! This is my first non-humor story. It's a story about Fran, because a) I love him, and b) I know absolutely _nothing_ about his history (does anyone? Except the creator?), and so _this _came out. I love it; I hate it; so, please. Tell me what you think.

_**Rating: **_**The rating on this story is subject to change.**

**_Disclaimer: _I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, even though I wish I did.  
**

* * *

**_Prologue_**:_** How it was**_

No one knows how the very first illusion came into existence.

Some say it was created by a magician, who was escaping death; He was an older man, who had stolen an ancient artifact from a tomb of a dead king. The artifact was said to hold the power to summon a demon from the farthest depths of Hell. With the King's soldiers on his tail, he summoned up all of his power to call upon the demon lying in sleep in the artifact. The demon appeared in the form of mist, and, obeying his Master, killed the soldiers. After the soldiers were slain, the demon gave a vow to the magician, to stay by his side as long as he was needed.

Others say that a mother created it from her tears, her loss over her baby too much to bear. Her tears solidified into a baby boy, mist coming off of him in tear drops. The two were able to live seven years of enjoyment, being a family and living in love. When he turned seven, the boy learned of how he was created, and how he wasn't her true child. In an angry rage, he killed his mother and father, before turning inside of himself and bursting into a cloud of mist.

The most famous story is that of a star, who, looking down at the people of Earth, cried a single tear of pity for those who were destroying their home. That tear landed in a desert, and, even though it had its orders from the star to help the people of Earth, it had a mind of its own; it created illusions or, as they would be come to be known, mirages. Those who were not wise enough were sucked in by the illusion and never made it out alive. Many had gone on adventures to try and find that star, but they never returned.

Then there were the ones that were plain stupid, so no one bothered to mention them.

Many had attempted to recreate the first illusion, hoping to bring it into existence to harness its power. The Fourth Vongola boss had attempted, but he had failed, and the creature that had been created took almost six months to track down and kill. Many other attempts had been made, but as far as anyone knew, they had resulted in death and destruction, with one actually sinking the land called Atlantis.

No attempts had been documented since the sinking of Atlantis.

But that doesn't mean that they hadn't stopped trying.

_**Part One: Them**_

_**-Altai Mountains, Siberia. **_

_**2337 hundred hours-**_

Mukuro Rokudo wasn't the type of person to go on missions solo, or to go on missions at all. He preferred to send his minions to do his dirty work. But this, this was different. Word was going around the circle that there was a new illusion weapon being made in Siberia, and that it was powerful. Very powerful. This type of weapon could be just what he needed to boost his power. _If the Vongola is, in fact, back, then I'll need all of the power I can get._

The lab was located deep in the Altai mountains, hidden well in the snow storm that Mukuro knew had to be machine created; no snow storm went on for six months, and no snow storm happened in summer, even in Siberia. _Kufufu. They are all idiots, _he thought, thinking of the Siberian scientists. Even the illusionists that were guarding the lab were way too easy to get rid of. The lab needed a new security system. Their current one was pathetic.

It was a small lab, metal, like the majority of all labs, and it wasn't supposed to exist, according to the Siberian Government. No lab names _Xaxis_ was permitted a license to practice its preferred science. _And yet, _Mukuro thought as he glanced down at the lab from the tree he was sitting on, high up on the hill overlooking the nook the lab was situated in, _here it is. _He had expected more illusionists and guards to be guarding the lab, but...

_This is almost too easy. Something is not right..._

Mukuro shook his head. Now was not the time to question his motive. He was here, and he was going to get what he'd come for.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped down from the tree, hitting a guard who had been patrolling on the head with his trident. The guard went down without a sound, the snow muffling the grunt he made when he hit the ground. Mukuro reached down and took the key from the guard's belt. "Thanks," he told the guard, before turning and making his way down the hill. The entrance to the lab was between two tall ice blocks that curved to a point at the top. It was being guarded by two illusionists and a man with a gun. _Easy_, he thought as he created a rabbit and sent it running over to a pile of ice rocks to the left of the guards; as it reached the rocks, Mukuro made it explode. The guards looked over in the direction of the smoke and ran over to it, allowing Mukuro the time he needed in order to sneak in. By the time the guards went back to their post, confusions written in fine lines on their faces, he was already inside.

The inside was definitely warmer, and he sighed as he took off his wet fur coat and placed it on the ground. The thing was getting in his way, the heavyweight of it causing him to slow down more than he wanted to. He would be quicker in getting what he'd come for now, without the creepy animal coat. He kicked the coat and made his way down the hall.

There were less guards inside, and he had to hold back a chuckle at the scientists logic; 'no one will be able to get inside, so put all of the guards outside' was not the best idea. He'd reached the end of the hallway and was about to turn left when he heard voices coming from his right. He pushed himself back against the wall and held in his breath, listening.

"...I told you to increase the electricity on the door. He almost escaped this time."

"I _did_ increase the electricity. He's gotten stronger."

"It's a good thing, but for him to get this strong this quick is-"

"I know, but let's not mention this to the boss just yet. This increase in power could destroy the entire project. Don't give him any more food today, and after he is tranquilized let's move him to cell block R. That should hold him for a while longer."

The two scientists continued down the hall, their conversation growing more quiet with each step. To check that they were gone, Mukuro stuck his head out into the hallway. They were gone, and, intrigued, he changed direction, going right instead of left; going in the direction the two scientists had come from. He had time, so he could look into this 'him' that they had been talking about.

There were no guards down this hall, which Mukuro found odd. _If there was something strong down here, you'd think that there would be a ton of guards. _

His foot-steps echoed all around the hallway, and they sounded louder to his ears. He was nearing the end of the hall when a loud banging sound reached his ears. He pulled out his trident and readied himself. But no enemies or guards came; the banging sound continued, and Mukuro began walking again, on guard. He reached the end of the hall in no time. But it was a dead end; there was no way to continue, no door, no windows. He placed his hand on the wall.

Nothing.

He cocked his head to the side, listening to the banging sounds, now with small grunts being added to the mix. He moved his hand around the wall, feeling for a difference. Suddenly, his hand disappeared. _Here we go,_ he thought, and he dispelled the illusion. A door appeared in front of him, with bars and a tiny window situated in the middle of the door. He grinned. _Stupid illusionists._ He gripped the door handle and opened it.

The room was dark, with no light able to enter to room as there was no windows. A small sound of metal clanking came from a corner and Mukuro took a step into the room; the door slammed shut behind him, the echo of the bang sounding louder than it was.

"Who're you?"

The voice was small, like one would have expected to come from a child. It also came from the corner. Mukuro turned to face the corner, and his eyes met two glowing green orbs. The orbs blinked. "You don't smell like one of _them_."

Mukuro stared at the green eyes. "Who I am is none of your concern, little one. Who you are is _far_ more interesting."

The two green lights moved slightly to the left. "I have no idea who I am. _They_ don't tell me."

Growing tired of the dark, Mukuro created an illusion light and placed it in the palm of his hand. He held it up, trying to get a good look at the other in the room.

It was a boy, who looked like he was six or seven. The boy had jade colored eyes, and his hair (the same color as his eyes) was almost touching the ground. He was sitting on the ground, his legs shackled and laying on the floor; his arms were chained as well, and were held up in the air by his head. On his left ring finger was a gray ring that shone dully in the small light. He was pale and thin, like he'd been starved his whole life, and the clothes he was wearing were old, torn, and covered in blood.

"Hello, there," Mukuro breathed.

The boy looked up at him. "You look like a pineapple," he stated blankly.

Mukuro pulled back a little. He didn't much like being called a pineapple. "And you are little."

The boy blinked at him, and Mukuro noticed two little purple triangles at the corner of his eyes. "What is 'little'?"

This boy hadn't seen much of the world, Mukuro decided. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

The boy shrugged. "I don't know. I've always been here. I don't like it, though. _They_ do weird things to me."

Mukuro had a sudden memory come rushing to him, of when he'd been trapped in a place he hadn't wanted to be in, and when people had done things to him that he hadn't wanted. He felt a small emotion creep up in him: pity. It was an odd feeling that had Mukuro confused. He normally didn't care when people got hurt, but... He shook his head, making up his mind. He was going to get his boy out. No one should be forced to be in a place they didn't want to be in. "What do they call you?"

"666."

"I mean a name."

"666."

Mukuro frowned. The kid didn't even have a proper name. That wasn't right. _I'll give him a name later, but we need to get out. I still need to find that weapon._ He straightened up and, with a flick of his wrist, the chains binding the boy fell apart. The boy stared at them. "Come," Mukuro said, turning back to the door and reaching for it.

"I wouldn't do that-"

A shock went through him, a pain that brought up memories of other electric devices that were used for torture. Mukuro turned into himself, letting his body take the pain but keeping his soul separate. The boy stood up on wobbly feet and walked slowly to him. "_They_ keep this side of the door electrified. So I can't get out. Doesn't work well, though."

Mukuro shook his head, clearing the pain away. _So, it's a little more difficult than I had thought._ But he knew how to get out. Clearing his mind, he created an illusion on the other side of the door and had the illusion open it. There was a _click _and the door opened. Mukuro turned to the boy. "Come, and let's get you out of here."

The two left the room, the little boy practically running to keep up with the fourteen year old. "Where are we going?"

"Outside."

The boy, although his face was blank, looked up at him and said, with some emotion floating in his voice, "I've never been to this 'Outside.' What's it like? Is it far away? I hope that there is a pool. I've heard a lot about pools from _them_."

Mukuro was about to answer when a shout from ahead of them caused them to stop.

"H-hey! What are you doing here?" The guard paused and looked at the boy who was hiding behind Mukuro's leg. His eyes widened. "Oh my god..." the guard whispered before dashing to the wall and pressing a red button that Mukuro hadn't noticed before.

Alarms went off, each blaring sound louder than the previous one. The little boy beside him covered his ears and squatted down to the ground. "No...no...not again. Not again!"

Mukuro grabbed his arm and yanked him up. "Now is not the time to get scared!"

He began running, stabbing the guard as they passed. More guards were coming their way, and Mukuro sent a wall of fire in their direction; the fire consumed them, the illusion being _real_ and it allowed the two to pass. With the arrival of the guards, it meant that he wouldn't be able to search for the weapon. It made him pissed. Eventually, he reached the corner that lead to the entrance. "Come on!" he yelled at the boy, who was struggling to keep up. "If you can keep up, I'll get you a cake!"

"What's- what's cake?"

"A treat!"

The little boy looked like he'd never had a 'treat' before, and he picked up his pace. They were nearing the entrance...

...only a few steps farther...

...Mukuro reached for the handle...

...they were free!

The snowstorm met them with a burst of cold air as they ran out of the lab. Mukuro shivered on impact and brought the little boy closer to him; but the little boy didn't seem affected by the coldness of the snow at all. In fact, he was bringing his hands up and trying to grab the falling flakes. "Is this 'Outside'?"

Mukuro grabbed his arm again. "Come, we still have far to go."

The two began to make their way to the exit, each step slow. The snowstorm was settling down a little, and Mukuro could make out the ice tips that indicated the exit he was looking for. They were almost there.

"STOP!"

The voice that rang out was businesslike and demanding. Mukuro turned, and he instinctively brought the little boy closer to him.

A group of men (around a hundred) of illusionists and soldiers were standing at the entrance to the lab, all of them holding guns and aiming them at him. Mukuro inhaled. _I can't take all of them on like this! Maybe half, but..._

The leader, a man in a big fur coat, stepped forward. "Child, I'll let you leave unharmed if you just give us back 666! He is needed very much in this facility, and would it would do us great harm if he was taken!"

'666' inched closer to Mukuro and grabbed his shirt, clinging tightly. "I don't like this man," he whispered. "He smells bad."

Mukuro stared the man down. "I'm taking him, whether you like it or not!"

The man clenched his teeth. "I say you're not! 666," he called, "why are you leaving with this boy? He's a stranger, and he has promised nothing to you! We give you food, and a place to sleep!"

The boy stepped forward a bit. "He said he'd give me a 'treat.' I would like this 'treat' very much," he said, speaking in a mono-toned voice. "I don't like you people."

The man snarled. "Fine! Let it be that way!"

He motioned, and one of the men fired:

Mukuro doubled over, the bullet grazing his hip. _I should have seen that coming,_ he thought as he let out a small moan. He put a hand to his hip, and when he brought it back, there was blood on his hands. The little boy stared at the blood, his eyes wide. "No..." he whispered. "Not going to happen!"

He turned and faced the men with the guns. Bringing his hands up, he put them out in front of him, his palms facing the men; he took a deep breath and swung his arms out to the side. As he did so, he yelled, "BOOM!"

There was an explosion; it stared with the lab, the windows shattering, the walls crumbling; then it reached the men, who were all trying to run, but as if in slow motion. The explosion sent them flying to the ground, and there were screams as it consumed them. It took Mukuro a good second to realize that this was an illusion. It was a _real_ illusion.

"It's you..." he whispered, looking up at the boy. "You were the illusion weapon..." The boy had made a real illusion appear by using his voice. _That_ was power. He stood up and poked the boy's shoulder. "Let's go and get you that treat, Fran," he said, deciding that this name would suit the boy.

The boy stared up at him. "'Fran'?"

"Your new name."

'Fran' blinked. "I've never had a name before. Is it a good thing?"

Mukuro nodded, and the two began to walk, the sounds of the explosion behind them. "It's a very good thing."

Fran nodded his head. "Then I like it."

"I'm going to make you my apprentice."

"Okay."

_I'm going to make sure to keep you by my side. This power of yours...it's mighty. I can use you. With you by my side, I will be able to defeat the Vongola..._

[][][][][]

"Listen here, I'm only doing this as a favor for Mukuro, so don't think that this means we're friends!"

Fran (he was still trying to get used to his new name) sat still on the wooden seat, staring intently at the girl in front of him. Her name was M.M, and she was going to be his 'teacher.'

Whatever _that_ was.

The girl M.M. sighed and tapped him on the head. "What's with your facial expressions- or more rather, what's with your _lack_ of facial expressions?"

Fran cocked his head to the side and blinked.

She growled. "Never mind," she said as she turned back to the food she was chopping. "I don't know why _I _have to be the one to baby-sit..." she grumbled.

The seven year-old pulled his knees up and stared unblinkingly at the meat, watching the knife in the his _teacher's _hand move up and down.

Up, down, up, down, up, down.

He opened his mouth:

"Chop."

A split second later, M.M let out a shriek as the meat vanished and reappeared, each part cut into perfect cubes. She looked back up at Fran, who was staring at her with a blank face. She couldn't believe it. This little boy had just performed a _real_ illusion-

_Using only his voice._

"Okay," she said, "food's done." She placed her hands on the cold counter and stared at the little boy that Mukuro had brought back with him from Siberia. He'd told her to take care of him for a little while. Since he was Mukuro, she didn't question him. And it wasn't that the child was a pain at all; he was quiet, and didn't really do much but stare at everything around him and watch T.V.

She sighed, looking at the long, green hair the boy had on his head. "Let's get that hair cut."

He blinked. "Okay," he said in mono-tone.

She pointed a finger at him. "Don't move," she said, and she left the room, reappearing with her purse and a hair tie. "I'm going to pull your hair up."

She gathered his hair and used the hair tie to pull it back and up. "There," she said.

Fran put a hand up to his head, feeling the hair tie and touching it with a tender touch. M.M pulled him from his seat and began to put his shoes on.

Shoes. It was a new concept, to wear shoes. He'd never had _shoes_ before, but he liked them. It made it so his feet didn't hurt when he walked around. When she was done, M.M dragged him to the door. "Let's make this fast, 'kay? I have some other things that I need to deal with."

The door opened, and Outside was revealed.

It was still all new to him, seeing as he had only been free for three weeks, but he was quickly growing used to being Outside. The sun made his skin look healthier, and the week previous, when he'd spent too much time Outside, it had even turned his skin red. It was all very fascinating. People were also Outside, but since they didn't look or smell like _them_ Fran didn't feel like he needed to be wary of them. One, an older lady, had even given him something called a 'chocolate bar.' Fran decided, after eating it, that he rather liked those chocolate bars; they were tasty, and if left in the heat, became gooey chocolate bars.

They were walking down the thing called a sidewalk when he saw it; it was what Mukuro had called a 'park.' There were other little ones playing there ('little one' being the name that Mukuro called him), and they were smiling. Fran still hadn't learned what made people smile, but he wanted to; when people 'smiled,' then other people were nice to them. He wanted other people to be nice to him. Then he could get more chocolate bars.

He liked chocolate bars.

The park was something that always drew Fran's attention when he was Outside. He wasn't allowed to go there, nor was he allowed to associate with anyone, but once, when it was late at night, Mukuro had woken him up and taken him to the park. No one was there, but Fran was able to play on the thing called a swing, the slide, and the sandbox. It had been fun, and he often left M.M.'s house late at night to go back. He loved the swing; it was his favorite, because when he closed his eyes, be could trick himself into believing that he was flying, high, high in the air. He loved that feeling.

The sudden stop was what drew him away from his thoughts. M.M was pulling him into a building; the door clanged shut behind them.

"Oh, well if it isn't little M.M. How are you doing?"

Growling, M.M pulled on Fran's hand and dragged him closer to the old man. "Birds, stop. I'm not a little girl! I'm fourteen!"

The man, Birds, smiled. "Sure, sure," he paused when he looked at Fran. "Eh? Who is this?"

"Fran, someone that Mukuro picked up."

Birds smirked. "She's cute..." he whispered, inching near.

"He's a boy."

Birds instantly pulled himself up-right. "Seriously?"

"Yes, I'm a boy. And you're kind of creepy."

Both older people stared down at him. He blinked up at them, then turned to M.M. "Is he the one who is going to cut my hair?"

His _teacher_ sighed. "Birds, he needs a hair cut. Mukuro told me to have it cut by the time he gets back so..."

The creepy old man sighed, nodding. "Fine, fine..."

Fran was pulled (he was getting pulled around a lot today) over to a chair and forced to sit on it. There was a mirror in front of him and he could see himself in it. Birds was mumbling some incoherent things as he pulled out some sharp looking objects. Soon, Fran could hear the _snip-snip_ sound of scissors being used, and the next second, a strand of his hair fell to the ground. It went on like that for a few minutes, before his hair came down a little past his chin. He leaned forward to look at himself, and that was when he felt a small stab at his shoulder. Looking down, he saw a small needle in his arm.

Birds snickered. "Oops! My bad!" His voice sounded different, Fran noted.

Fran blinked down at the needle, before reaching down and pulling it out. "Here," he said, giving the needle back to Birds. Both the old man and M.M stared at him. He blinked. "What?"

The old man shook his head. "Nothing..." he turned to face M.M. "That's going to cost you."

She scoffed. "You kidding? You're not getting anything! If you want money, take it up with Mukuro when he gets back!"

With that, she grabbed Fran and took him back to Outside.

[][][][][]

_**-Thirteen years later...**_

_**Manzherok, Siberia. 1924 hundred hours-**_

"Hey, Froggy. Tell the Prince a story."

Fran glanced over at his senpai, who was lounging on the hotel couch, playing with one of his knives. "Senpai, you're going to want to put that away. You're going to get us kicked out of here."

He only let out a sigh when Bel tossed his knife at him. _Stupid senpai, _he thought as he pulled the knife out of his arm. "You're an idiot, senpai."

Bel snickered. "I'm not an idiot; I'm a prince. Now, tell me a story."

They were in a a crappy hotel near the village of Manzherok, waiting for their mafia contact who had said that there was a job to be done. He was more than an hour late, and Fran could tell that Bel was getting bored of waiting. Prince the Ripper wasn't one to wait patiently; he wasn't one to wait at all, so when he was forced to wait, especially for a long period of time, he was never in a good mood. And it was never a good thing for Fran when Bel was in a bad mood. It usually meant that he wanted a story told to him (really, Bel was such a child most of the time), and _that_ meant that Fran had to talk.

He didn't like talking.

Fran slumped down next to Bel and stared up at the ceiling. It was a boring ceiling, with a few fans and an ugly square design. "What kind of story?"

"One fit for a prince."

"Well, then it looks like I can't tell you one."

Bel stabbed him. "Tell the Prince a story."

"Fine," he said, pulling out the knife and bending it, ignoring Bel's exclamation of 'hey!.' He settled down in the seat and began:

"Once, there was a single emotion of pity that fell upon the land. It was sent for a reason, to save the people and remind them of their potential. But once it saw the evil of the world, it decided that it would do what it could to punish the people, instead of helping them. In the desert where it'd landed, it decided to create a strong and powerful illusion, creating water where water should never be, trees where they could not grow, and a place for sleep when one should not be sleeping. Many fell for these tricks, and hardly any made it out alive. Eventually, the emotion grew on the despair that the dying gave off, and it became stronger, becoming addicted to the power it held, surrounding the area it was located in inside a single, very powerful illusion.

"The illusion overwhelmed those who came near it, and a scientist, who was studying the art of illusions, decided to see if this legend about the desert was true. He traveled far and wide, until he came to the desert with the illusions so powerful that he couldn't enter without offering up a sacrifice. In a nearby town, he found a woman who had just lost her child, her first son. He brought the body of the child to the desert, but it wasn't enough. So he went back, and this time he found an old magician, who, throughout the years had gone mad. He took the man to the desert, where the feeling of pity decided to let the man enter; he was brave, and the emotion felt that it could handle one single human. It underestimated the scientist's power, however.

"The scientist had created a box; one small, brown box, that was powerful enough to hold a single illusion. He spent many days with the emotion, earning its trust, until one day, he swept up the feeling of pity and locked it into the box. He took the box out of the desert and to his lab, deep in a range of mountains. There he kept the box, and he took his time studying it. Eventually, though, time began to wear on the box, and some of the illusions seeped out. They were strong and easily overpowered the scientist, who had grown old and weak with age. Once the scientist was disposed of, the illusion thought it could escape.

"But it'd forgotten that the scientist had assistants. Those assistants would not allow the illusion to leave, and locked it inside of the dead child's body that had been offered up as a sacrifice. There, the lingering soul of the dead boy overcame the illusion, the want to live more powerful than the illusion could deal with. It fused with the child, and the boy came to life-"

He was about to go on when a man tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, pardon me, but are you the Varia representatives?"

Both assassins turned to see a man in his late forties; his clothes were worn and torn in places, with many badly sewn patches holding the pieces of cloth together. He looked much older then Fran assumed he really was, and he was constantly fumbling with his hands.

Belphegor frowned. "Hmmm... You're late."

The man bowed. "I'm terribly sorry, but I ran i-into some trouble and-"

Bel shushed him. "Whatever. Just tell us why you called us out to this hellish place. You made the Prince wait long enough," he mumbled.

Fran fought the urge to sigh. The man nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes. You're quite right."

He looked around them, at the people walking around the hotel lobby. "Come with me, and we'll find a more...secure room," he said as he began to walk into one of the empty conference rooms; the assassins followed him.

Once the door was closed and locked, the man turned to them. "My name is Vadim, and I'm here because I'm a representative of the Bogdan family."

Bel 'hmm'ed.

The Bogdan family was one of the Vongola's most supportive families; their alliance had been started with the First, and it had held together through all of the years since. For them to contact the Vongola in need of help meant that something big was going on.

Vadim continued. "One of our scouts was in the Altai mountains a couple of weeks ago, and there he found something odd. There is an old lab up there, deep in the mountain that was destroyed over thirteen years ago, but...we have reason to believe that it is up and running again; there are some weird things that are happening to the mountains. We even saw some important looking people entering and exiting the lab."

Fran tensed. _What is the labs' name...what's the name? _He wanted to yell it out, to force the man to say any name but the one he was thinking of, but he remained calm and composed. It wouldn't do any good if he got out of character now.

Bel sighed. "Why did you contact us, then? We perform assassinations, not investigations."

Vadim nodded. "I know, but we _do_ want you to assassinate someone." He lowered his voice to a whisper and began again. "We found out the name of one the persons entering the lab.

"His name is Boris Tarasov, and he is very big in the science of bioengineering. For him to be there...well, we have reason to believe that they are building -or creating something – in that lab."

Fran cocked his head to the side. "What does that have to do with us?"

"After a little bit more research, we found out that he was associated with the Fedor Family."

This made both Bel and Fran more interested. The Fedor Family had long been enemies with the Vongola, almost as long as the Bogdan family had been allies. The family was always trying to create ways to get rid of the Vongola, but had yet to succeed.

Vadim nodded again. "Why we called you into this is because we discovered that Boris has a son and a daughter; the son is around the age of twenty, the daughter much younger, being around six."

Bel smiled his murder smile. "And you want us to kill them."

"The son, yes. Not the daughter. We can hold her hostage to get the information from Boris. If you accept, we have information on the targets' locations and their daily schedules. Are you in?"

The use of the word 'target' made the two children seem less human. It made the job easier. It also meant that Vadim was very serious.

Belphegor laughed. "Ushishishi. Fuck yes."

Fran stared at him. "Shall I inform the stupid long-haired captain that we are taking this job?"

Bel shook his head. "Nah, it's just a simple assassination. It's not like we're going to get dragged into this anymore." He turned and placed his elbow on top of Fran's frog hat. "Ushishi. Froggy needs to finish his story. Tell the Prince later, okay?"

Fran sighed. "Whatever..."

With a small (and relieved) smile, Vadim pulled out a small, black binder and handed it to Fran. "This is all of the information we have on the Tarasov family. I wish you luck on your job." With that, he began to leave the room, acting like he wanted very much to not be in the room with the two Varia soldiers.

Bel called out to him to stop before he reached the door. "Ushishi. You forgot to tell us the labs' name. It's sort of important."

Vadim gulped. "I believe that it is called _Xaxis._"

As Vadim left, Fran felt a cold hand creep up his stomach and squeeze his heart. _Senpai,_ he thought as the two began to look over the binder together. He put a hand into his pocket, gripping his Hell Ring in a tight grip. _I feel like we just might get dragged into this...more than we want to. If _Xaxis_ is, in fact, back up, many awful things could come out of it. I should know. Better than anyone. _He sighed, and tightened his grip on his ring. _Be there for me, _he told it. _I'm going to need you._

[][][][][]

_**-Altai Mountains, Siberia.**_

_**0294 hundred hours-**_

"It's up to thirty-three percent."

"Good, that means that this formula is working."

"Thirty-seven percent."

The man placed his hands on the railing, looking down at the large tube and wires. "Come on..." he whispered. "Come on!"

An alarm rang out, along with a red light that filled the room. Scientists ran about, each turning off machines and some flipping switches down. The man hit the railing with a fist. "Dammit," he yelled, gripping the railing in a tight grip. "What happened?" He barked at the scientist nearest to him.

The man gulped. "It looks like the system we created w-was not compatible, sir!"

The scientist let out a shriek as he was grabbed around the shoulders. "Then create one that_ is_ compatible!"

The scientist nodded and, as soon as he was released he ran from the room, shouting orders to the other assistants in Russian. The man sighed and leaned against the railing.

"No other system is compatible, you know."

He turned sharply to see a single silhouette standing in the doorway. He bowed. "Sir," he said, trying to keep his demeanor cool.

The other man entered the room slowly. "There is only one who is able to get this machine working, Boris."

Boris looked up sharply. "Only one, sir?"

The man ran a hand against the railing. "Only one, but he escaped this facility a long time ago. Over thirteen years ago, to be exact. He was the one who destroyed this lab," he said as he walked forward. "He nearly killed me."

Boris gulped. "Number 666, sir? But he has vanished off of the map! No one has been able to find him!"

The other man startled him by slamming a fist into the wall. "Do not remind me," he hissed. "That purple haired brat ruined this whole operation! He hid 666 in a place that I could not find!"

Boris inched over to the door. "We will do our best to find him."

His boss glared at him. "You better, or you will regret it."

* * *

At the end of this chapter I can only ask if you will please, _please_, leave your feedback. I appreciate it very much when people tell me if they liked it, if it was horrible (yes, I'm weird, but it helps if people are honest; it means I can improve the story.), and what they think needs some work. So, if you don't mind, drop a review in the review box. I will love you forever if you do.

Lots of love,

UO


	2. The Cage

A/N: I'm back! Sorry this update took so long but with starting college and marching band (which, by the way, is kicking my ass) I have hardly had time to write. Just a few things before I get started, though:

1) Thank you so much to all of those who reviewed. You made my days brighter when I felt down (and with a burn like I currently have from marching all day, I feel down quite a lot) and made me want to write more. Again, thank you.

2) For this chapter, I am keeping the rating at T, but in the next chapter or so, I believe that will change and the rating will become M. I am sorry if that makes any readers feel uncomfortable. I will warn you if there are some things in the chapter that might make some feel uncomfortable.

3) Again, if anyone spots any grammatical errors, let me know so that I can fix them. Also, if you feel like Fran is, in any way, OOC, let me know as well. If he is, I would like to do what I can to get him more into character.

Here we go!

**Title**: Illusione Orale

**Summary**: When an old, rival Mafia Family begins to grow a bio-engineered weapon to completely wipe out all of the Vongola, no one takes the threat seriously. It's only when the thing begins to kill that they realize their only hope lies in the legend of a single emotion of pity, that was sent down from the stars to save them. BelxFran, and others.

_**Rating: **_**The rating on this story is subject to change.**

**_Disclaimer: _I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, if I did, no one would be waiting for Fran to show up in the manga right now. He would be there, ripping it up.  
**

* * *

"_It's just a little bit longer. You can hold out, right? You've held out for much longer than this. It shouldn't hurt."_

_Pain...burning pain..._

_Stop._

_Make it stop._

"_Inject this in him in a few minutes. We need to build up the immune system. If it's not built up, then nothing at all will work."_

"_Yes, sir."_

_No._

_No more. No more poking. Please, no. _

_No!_

"_Alright, you've stopped shaking. We just have one more thing to give you- hey! Don't pull away from me, brat!"_

_-slap-_

_Anger building...seeing red._

"_Wh-what is that thing? What is it-"_

_-slash. Rip. Tear.-_

_Scream. More screaming. _

_Stop it. No more noise!_

"_S-sedate him! Sedate him!"_

_Inject. _

_Feeling sleepy..._

_No. Not again._

_No..._

"It's okay. I'm here. I'll always be here..._"_

_Rest. Relief._

"_Do-don't leave me..."_

"I won't. I don't plan to._"_

[][][][][]

Fran woke up sweating, something that was rare. He didn't sweat. It just wasn't something he did. Sighing, he sat up in bed and removed his blanket. Glancing down, he noticed his hands were shaking. _That's odd..._ he thought. He shook his head as a flash of ghost pain ran over his body.

_No...not now..._

He shivered, suddenly feeling cold.

He hadn't had that dream since he'd first been rescued by his Master, over thirteen years ago. _All because there is a slim chance that the lab is back up and running. _His heart stared racing, pounding against his ribcage. _Calm down, Fran. Calm down. It's probably not even _them._ You're safe._ He stood up from his crappy hotel bed and walked over to the bathroom, intent on getting a drink of water to calm down. It wasn't like him, to be so terrified from a single dream.

_No, a nightmare._

Instead of getting a drink of water, he turned on the faucet and splashed a handful of cold water on his face. "Calm down. Calm down." He looked down at the Hell ring on his finger and ran his pointer finger over it.

_Are you there?_

A feeling of protectiveness ran over him and he sighed.

_'I'm always here. I'm always here for you. You know that.'_

_I feel...scared._

He felt a small ghost of air wash over him, and he sighed. _Thank you._

'_I'm here for you. Don't forget that; we hate them the same amount. I'll protect you from them.'_

That single whisper was what made it possible to sleep. As he fell into the deep abyss called sleep, a dark, single shadow appeared over him. It stared down at him.

"You're safe as long as I'm here..." the shadow said, before it laid down on top of the illusionist, disappearing into Fran's shadow.

[][][][][]

_**-Thirteen years previous-**_

"_You're a cute little boy."_

It was the fact that he'd been called 'cute' before being called little that made Fran look up. The seven year-old didn't have to look far, because the old lady who was talking to him was short. It confused him. He thought that as you got older, you grew taller. M.M had told him so. It didn't make sense that when you were older you would be shorter...

"Hi," he said, looking into her eyes, trying to see if she was going to hurt him. She was holding her hand out to him, as if waiting for him to take it. A tiny voice rang out in the back of his subconsciousness:

_'Okay.'_

He held out his small hand and she took it, smiling all the while. "Oh, you're just adorable, dear." She hummed a small tune before her face got serious. "But your hair," she said, 'tsk'ing. "You really need to get that cut, honey," she said sternly.

Fran pulled his hand back a little. He needed to get his hair cut? Well, it was hard to walk because he kept tripping over the strands. That and his feet hurt when he walked, but thanks to a new clothing item called shoes, it made walking easier. And his feet didn't hurt as much when he walked. He liked that. "O-okay, ma'am."

Ma'am. That was something that his Master, Mukuro (master _and_ rescuer) had told him to use when someone (mister for men, ma'am for female) told him to do something. The old lady smiled at him again. He liked it when she was smiling; some of the wrinkles on her face came close together and it make her look like a nicer old lady. "Good," she said, before reaching into the bag she was carrying on her shoulder.

Fran tensed, waiting. In his experience, bad things came out of bags. _But she seemed so nice! I thought that she was okay!_

A second later she pulled out a bar of something that was wrapped in paper. "Here you go, little one."

Little one.

Master called him little one. Fran was still unsure if it was a term of affection or an insult. From what he'd learned of his Master over the past week, he was pretty sure that it was an insult. _Oh well._ He stared at the thing she had offered him, and his confusion must have shown on his face (he was unsure of what his face did half of the time; he thought that maybe he needed to make sure to keep track of his face, make sure that it was never showing anything) because the old lady smiled a bigger smile.

"It's a chocolate bar. Goodness me, child! Have you never had one before?"

Fran took the...chocolate bar and opened it. It was brown, and the smell that washed over him drove his senses crazy. His eyes widened and the old lady laughed. "Have fun with that, dear," she said as she hobbled away, walking like the creatures Fran had seen on the animal show, called penguins.

"...M'kay..." he muttered after her. He turned away and went back to trying to find M.M. This place she had brought him to, the grocery store, was big, and somewhere between the milk isle and the bread isle he'd lost her. With so many people in the store, it was a wonder that he hadn't gotten lost earlier.

"Fran!"

He almost jumped, but instead settled for freaking out inside. M.M ran up to him, dropping the bags she was holding. "Jeez! You just vanished!"

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him as soon as she reached him. "Don't do that again!"

He blinked. "Okay..."

Sighing, she let him go and picked up her bags. "...don't know what I would've done if Mukuro found out I'd lost his 'little one'..." she mumbled.

Fran cocked his head to the side. "Do you like Master?"

She turned a color Fran had never seen a person turn before. It was a very interesting color, and he vaguely wondered if everyone could turn that color. "N-no! All I care about is money! And speaking of money..." she handed Fran a bag and leaned down; the bag was full, and it was almost as big as his stomach. "I really don't want to spend my money on all of this food; it's not for me. It's so that you have something to go in that tiny stomach of yours (again, why am _I _the one babysitting?). So, in reality, you should be the one paying. So, since you don't have any money, let's get this food for free, 'kay?"

Fran looked down into the bag; in it was a loaf of bread, some apples, two cases of eggs, and-

_Was that a cake?_

He looked back up at M.M. "How do we get this for free?"

She smirked. "It's easy. Just put an illusion over the bags, and then we will walk out with them!"

He glanced down at the bag in his arms. "Okay?"

He stared at the bags intently, trying to feel what he felt when he had used what his Master called _real_ illusions.

It wasn't coming.

"Ummm..."

He tried concentrating again, but the feeling that came when he performed his other illusions...still...wasn't...coming.

"It's not..."

The way M.M was glaring at him made his body freeze inside. It didn't show on the outside, though. She gave out a very long sigh. "Looks like we are going to be forced to do this the hard way." She leaned down. "You better be able to run very fast, _little one_."

Before he could say anything, she had grabbed the remaining bags and bolted for the entrance door. Fran stared after her before following in her lead; one of the cashiers yelled out to them. "Hey, thieves!"

Running was a new feeling; the wind blew his hair out of his face, and it gave him the same feeling that the swing had at the playground. M.M was ahead of him, and a couple of store workers were behind him. He decided to keep running, keeping his eyes fixed on his teacher.

She was his teacher, who would later teach him the wonders of life and on that day, she taught him how to steal.

**_Present Time_**

[][][][][]

His senpai was still asleep when he opened his eyes the next morning, the sun shining brightly through the window. He turned his head to the left and his eyes landed on Bel's form; for someone who was crazy and wild when awake, his senpai was actually...peaceful when he slept.

Fran pulled his eyes away from Bel's sleeping form and stared at the ceiling.

_What was that thought...?_

Sighing, he leaned over his bed and began fishing through his duffel-bag for his cell phone; since the hotel they were staying in (the Varia was cheap, and always tried to save money when they went on missions. They preferred the cheap places; the ones with all of the cockroaches) didn't have an alarm clock, he had to rely on his cell-phone.

His cell-phone had been given to him from the Varia (business phones), and therefore was cheap as well. The light of the screen blared up at him when he turned it on, the clock reading 0637.

Fran stared at it.

_Six in the morning..._ He sighed, then pulled his upper body back onto the bed. Well, if he was going to be forced to be awake at the ungodly hour, then at least he could get some work done. He sat up in bed and leaned over to get his senpai's backpack. The black binder that Vadim had handed them was stuffed deep into the worn pack, and Fran sighed as he pulled it out. He put the backpack aside and opened the binder.

The first pages were on Boris and his wife, with whom he had recently divorced; he'd been cheating on her with one of his employee's, and she had only been with him for the money. She was currently living in Hawaii with a lover, so she wouldn't be of any use. He turned her page over and looked at Boris's pages.

The man was born and raised in a family that had little to no influence in the government or the mafia; they were middle class, a small family of four: the father: deceased. The mother in a home, and an older sister, who was a science teacher at the local university. Fran skipped over the parents' files and studied the sister's. She was not involved in any of the big named mafia- that they were aware of. She would be someone to keep an eye on. Boris himself had a very impressive record: he'd been in jail four times in his youth, two for armed robbery, one for entering and breaking, and one for murder. Miraculously, every single charge had been dropped. After getting out of jail, he'd seemed to turn over a new leaf and went to college to get his engineering degree. After, he'd dropped off the radar, until his appearance with the Fedor family. A few years after his reappearance, he'd met his wife, gotten married, and had two children.

Fran put his pages aside and reached for the first child's information.

His name was Vladimir, and he was close with his father. It was written that it was possible that Boris had inclosed some useful information to his son before he'd vanished in Siberia. His son was getting ready to enter into residency so that he could become a doctor. The file went on to describe every single fear Vladimir had; every insecurity, every bad nightmare, every single point of weakness.

_If he has information that could be used, we'll need to get it out of him before he is assassinated. _

He placed his elbows on his folded legs and leaned his head against his fists, thinking. They had do get the information if it led to what was going on inside the lab. There had to be some sort of technique-

His head snapped up and he stared at the wall ahead of him.

_The Cage._

It was a technique that he'd learned in his subconscious, where his _other_ slept. It worked and fed on the fear of the one trapped within. All Fran had to do was get the target in a secure room and start the illusion. He'd be outside the illusion, controlling everything, using the fear of the one trapped within to get all of the information that would be needed. He couldn't escape the illusion until he told everything that he knew.

The hard part was not what the target had to go through; the hard part was controlling it. It was a _real_ illusion, so anything that happened to the target while in the Cage would really happen. He'd used it five times before, and only once did the victim survive. The fear had become so powerful that the victim had actually drowned in it, succumbing to the terror within. Controlling the illusion, so that it didn't act on its own, was the hard part, since many things could go wrong, to the one inside the illusion and to the one controlling it. The last time Fran had tried it, he'd passed out for nearly two days and the victim was sent to the hospital with no brain function. The fear could grow so strong that it could actually drive a person to have a heart attack (it had happened the first time he'd performed the technique) and die.

_But, _he thought as he stared out the window at the sun, _it should work. If I make the fear so real that he gives up on holding the information away, then he will talk. It will work._

It would _have_ to work...

[][][][][]

The first time he'd retreated to his subconscious was when he'd been four; _they_ were putting things in him that make his body hurt all over, and he hadn't wanted to feel the pain anymore. He'd pulled himself inside of his mind, and once he realized that he couldn't feel the pain anymore, he'd began to wander around.

It was cozy there, like it had been made just for him; there was a bed with a big, fluffy looking pillow, a dresser with new clothes, a giant stuffed frog sitting in the middle of the bed, a table with warm food that smelled delicious, warm blankets that he could wrap around himself when he got cold, and a fireplace that had a fire going, with a big, soft and bouncy couch right by it. He'd nearly cried out when he had taken a bite of the peanut-butter and jelly sandwich sitting on the table and found out that he could actually _taste_ the bread, the jelly, and the peanut-butter. He played there whenever the pain got too painful, or when he didn't want to deal with it. Every day, there was a sandwich waiting there for him. It was just him and the room. Everything in the room was his.

But one day, while he'd been admiring the sandwich once again, _something_ _else_ appeared.

"It's all here for you. I made it, for _you_."

666 nearly dropped the sandwich as he turned around sharply. There was a shadow in the corner, but it wasn't shaped like any of the items in the room.

It was shaped like one of _them._

He dropped the sandwich. How had they gotten here? This was _his_ mind, he was sure of it! Unless, what they had given him somehow made it so that they could hurt him in his mind too? He shook his head and backed into the corner, moaning, "No...no...no...don' hurt me..."

He stopped his crying when he felt arms around him, but they didn't feel like normal arms; they weren't warm, nor did they feel like they had skin. They felt like air, like a shadow. "Don't cry. I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you. You're all I have."

666 pulled back slightly and looked up into a blank face; there were no eyes, no mouth, no nose and no ears: there was nothing. It was just black.

"Who're you?"

The _thing_ pulled away, and for some reason, 666 could tell that it was smiling. "I'm you."

666 blinked, confused. "If you're me, then who am I?"

The _thing_ laughed, a deep, dark, but light and happy laugh. "You are still you; I'm your shadow. I'm what you could be."

"I can be a shadow?"

There was that confusing laugh again. "No, I'm the power that is sleeping within you; your own magical power."

666 sniffed. "I can do magic?"

The _thing_ nodded, the faceless head bobbing up and down. "You can do very powerful...magic. It's all just trapped in here," it said, bringing up a skinless finger to tap his forehead.

"Well, what's it doing in there?"

"It's playing hide-and-seek. It's just waiting for you to find where it is hiding."

"Will you help me find it?"

It nodded again. "Of course."

666 pulled on the black hand. "What is your name?"

It was silent for a while, and 666 could tell that it was thinking. "Call me Pity."

"Pity? Tha's a weird name."

Pity didn't move, but 666 could tell that it was smiling. "Let's go and find your magic."

"M'kay!"

Together, hand in hand, they turned down a hall that 666 hadn't noticed before. They walked the hall in silence, and they walked for a very long time; when 666 would return to his other way of seeing (the world with _them_), he'd let himself get to the point where the pain was so intense, he'd fall asleep and find himself back in the hallway with Pity. Pity was always waiting for him; it never went ahead. They never spoke. It took a few falling asleep days before the four year-old spoke up, wanting to ask a question. "Pity, do you feel pain at all?"

Pity shook its head. "I do not. Why do you ask?"

666 lowered his voice. "Because, when I'm looking through my other eyes I'm in pain more than I'm not. I don' wanna feel that pain anymore. It makes water come out of my body and I don' wanna lose the water in my body. It keeps me company; sometimes, when I drink more water and then I jump around, I can hear it playing with my tummy. I like it."

Pity's body shook with laughter. "Do you want to learn a way to not feel the pain?"

666 stared up at him with wide eyes. "There's a way I can do that?"

"Yes, it's very simple." Pity stopped walking and bent down to be face to face with the child. "Leave a little bit of yourself here."

666 cocked his head to the side. "But, if I stay here, then what will happen to me when I go back? Will I be missing an ear or somethin'?" He glanced down at his feet and wiggled his toes. "Will my toes go away?"

Pity shook with laughter again. "I didn't mean leave an actual part of your body here. I meant leave some part of your mind in contact with this place, in contact with me."

"What will that do?"

Pity motioned around the hallway. "You don't feel what they are doing to your body here, do you?"

666 shook his head.

Pity continued. "It's because this place pulls you away from your body. It separates you from what you are feeling, while keeping reality in check."

"Reality?"

It was all rather confusing for the four year old

"What is happening out there; out in your other eyes."

666 looked down at the ground. "So, what do I do to leave myself here?"

Pity pulled him into a hug. "Grant me access to your mind."

666 shrugged. That sounded simple. "Okay, but how do you do that?"

Pity turned and faced the endless hallway, smiling the invisible smile. "We need to find your magic first," it said before grabbing 666's hand and walking forward.

It took them a good six sleeping days to find his magic, all the while Pity teaching him things that he could do once he found his magic. He found it floating around a small, bright white room. It was high in the sky, and even when he jumped, he couldn't reach it. He stared intently at it for a while, then turned to look at Pity, who was squatting near a wall. "I didn't know that my magic was a balloon."

Pity shrugged. "It's just waiting for you; it's all balled up, and it's floating around so that no one else can steal it."

666 stuck out his lower lip. "I don't want anyone else to steal it; it's _my_ magic!"

"Then release it."

666 looked back up at the balloon. "But how?"

"You pop it."

"With what?"

"Your mind," Pity said, gesturing at the balloon. "Will it to pop with your mind."

666 sighed and began a staring contest with the balloon. He found it kind of funny that his magic looked like a balloon. He remembered balloons, from something called a birth-day. There had been something called candles, and a box that was covered in colored paper called a present. In it was a green frog, one much like the bigger on sitting on the soft bed in his Mind-Room. The girl who had given him the frog had also given him a bright red balloon. But after that one day, the frog and balloon were taken away, and he never saw the girl scientist again.

Biting his lip, he intensified his will for his magic to pop. Soon, the water was leaving his body again, and he got mad.

_Pop...pop...pop..._

"POP!"

The balloon exploded: tiny pieces of the balloon fell from the top of the room, each piece gliding down to him slowly. He could feel energy surrounding him, and it made him smile. He turned to Pity. "It wasn't like I thought it would be. I thought that there would be some big thing that flew at me or somethin'."

Pity smirked. "You really are like a child."

666 blinked up at him. "I am a child."

"Of course."

From then on, Pity taught him what he could do with his magic. It was called illusion making, and, according to Pity, he was very good at it. Pity even taught him how to leave a little bit of his mind with Pity, so that he wouldn't feel the pain anymore. It made it so that he could sleep better at night when he was too tired to go to his Mind-Room. Some nights, after his lessons, Pity would tell him parts of a story, about how a single emotion fell from the stars and landed on Earth, and how it decided to punish the bad people for doing bad things to the Earth.

"Pity," he whispered one night. "I don't like it there, in the other place; the lab. I want to get out."

Pity stared at him. "Then let's get us out. I'll teach you some things that will make it easier to get out. They aren't just pictures, though. They are _real_."

"I'd like that..."

And he drifted off to sleep.

[][][][][]

"Hey, Froggy. Are you going to finish telling the Prince the story?"

Fran looked up from the plate of food in front of him to stare at the blond across the table from him. "Senpai, now is not the time. The target will be arriving soon, and I need to focus on the illusion I will be performing."

Bel sighed and leaned back in his chair. Earlier that morning, after Bel had woken up, they'd staged a phone call to Vladimir, telling him that they were people who had come holding a very important message from his father. He'd told them that he would arrive at their hotel as soon as he could. "I still don't know why we're using an _illusion_ to get some stupid information; we're assassins. We kill people, not get information from them. The Prince really wants to stab him."

Fran picked at his food with the wooden spoon in his hand. "Because, if we kill him and later it turns out that only he had some sort of code needed to open a very important box, we'll get in trouble. And," he said, taking a bite of food, "you'll be able to stab him after I'm done with the illusion."

Bel smirked. "Ushishishi. The Prince like this plan now."

Bel then proceeded to snicker and stab at his food on his plate with much enthusiasm.

Fran sighed and tried to ignore the feeling in his gut that was saying that Bel's laugh was sounding very...sexy...

He shook his head and stared down at the sausage on his plate. What was wrong with him today? This was the second time he'd felt that weird feeling, the first being when Bel had first woken up, his hair all tousled from sleep and his clothes rumpled. What made it worse was the fact that his night shirt had ridden up and Fran had a good view of his senpai's abs.

It had been like a domino effect: Bel had stretched then, causing his muscles to ripple, which then caused Fran's heart to flutter, which caused his face to turn pink, which caused Bel to ask if he was sick, which caused him to shake his head, which then caused Bel to snicker and toss a knife at him.

Fran didn't like the domino effect. He also, for reference, didn't like Bel's nice, toned abs...

He gulped. _Focus on the mission, Fran. Focus._

His mind was jerked back into play when Bel tapped his arm. "Look," he whispered in his ear (Fran got that feeling in his gut again), looking over Fran's shoulder at the door. Fran looked up and nodded. The target had arrived. It was time to work.

He closed his eyes and imagined a man coming from the hotel desk, who had just spotted their target and was in a great hurry to meet up with him; he had some important news to give.

He imagined them greeting, them exchanging hand-shakes and names, and the man telling their target that he had a letter to give him, but it would be best that they do their business in private. Opening his eyes, he grabbed Bel's sleeve. "Let's go," he said, putting an illusion cover over them so that they could follow their target and the illusion that Fran had created without being seen.

Bel suddenly let out a little snicker. "Looks like the target came with some little friends," he whispered, inching his head a tiny bit of a fraction to the left. Five big and burly men were walking down the hall a few feet behind them, trying to seem inconspicuous but failing. "The Prince will take care of them when they cause a problem."

"_If_, senpai. _If_ they cause a problem."

His senpai snickered again. "No, Froggy. _When_."

Fran turned his attention back to their target. He and Fran's illusion were entering a room that hadn't existed that morning, the illusionist having created the door along with the man walking with their target. "He's entering the Cage. I'm going in," he whispered, pulling up close to the wall and sitting in front of the door. "Don't let me die," he said in mono-tone as he adjusted the hideous frog hat on his head. "Okay, senpai?"

His senpai looked down at him with a look that made the weird feeling in his stomach rise up again. "Ushishishi. Prince the Ripper won't let the Frog die." He leaned down and whispered in Fran's ear, "The Prince is going to be the one to kill you, not these ugly and dead men." He leaned back up and pulled out some of his knives. "The Prince is going to have fun with this."

Fran sighed and let his crazy senpai go to work. He rolled his shoulders before stretching out his arms and placing them on the door. He took one deep breath, closed his eyes, and entered the Cage.

* * *

The end of chapter two. All I can say here is that I hope that you enjoyed it, and please tell me what you thought!

Lots of love,

UO


	3. Warmth

Hi again.

Well, here we are. The third installment. I'm proud it, and I'm grateful to those who gave me their opinions on the story. It helps with my writing, and it also helps improve the story.

**Seriyuu:** Thank you! Fran is, in his own way, stronger than Mukuro, and in Mukuro's own way, he is stronger than Fran. If that clears any confusion you had up. His _other_ is the first illusion but...that comes with a price. You know, the whole Spider Man motto: With great power comes great responsibility (I love that saying).

**n a g a s h i . n o . k u r o:** Thank you! I'm glad that the little little things like 'man, he looks good today' aren't getting in the way of the plot. So thank you for saying that. It made me happy.

**ThreeWayDart:** Thank you! I love Fran to pieces and wanted to give him a shot at stardom! Hope its working! And yes, those scientists are evil and pervy but don't worry! They'll get what's coming to them.

**marsnmonkey:** Thank you! And wow- blushes deeply- Hope your soul is doing fine!

And a thank you for all of those who read the story!

**Title**: Illusione Orale

**Summary**: When an old, rival Mafia Family begins to grow a bio-engineered weapon to completely wipe out all of the Vongola, no one takes the threat seriously. It's only when the thing begins to kill that they realize their only hope lies in the legend of a single emotion of pity, that was sent down from the stars to save them. BelxFran, and others.

**_Rating:_ **T. **rating is subject to change in the future.**

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! unfortunately. Because if I did, Fran would be in the manga, kicking ass, and with Bel.

**Warnings: blood and assassinations.  
**

* * *

He was laying on sand, staring up at a blaring sun and feeling the rays burn into his skin. The sound of birds chirping were all around him, and he closed his eyes so that he could feel the wind blowing on his face and listen to the chirping of the birds. He let his body relax, and he let out a small breath of air; he was content.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open.

He couldn't lay here. He had a job to do.

He took a deep breath and pulled himself back into _his_ mindset. It wouldn't do to get lost in his own illusion with the target. He had to be the one controlling it, directing it. If he got sucked in, then it would be almost impossible to get back out unscathed. "Alright," he muttered to himself. "Target is scared of quicksand. Let's add that..."

Sometimes, Fran felt like an artist when creating his illusions. He started out with a blank canvas, and then he would add more and more to the canvas as he put more illusions within the illusion. Eventually, when the illusion was complete, his canvas would be full, and he would sit back and stare at what he'd created for a while. But at the same time, it was more difficult to build an illusion then it was to paint on a canvas. One had to be completely focused -especially with such a strong and _real_ illusion like the one he was doing. His Master had done this illusion once, and he'd told Fran to stay focused, and to not slip. A single slip could ruin the entire thing.

Fran closed his eyes and imagined the sand swirling about, sucking everything that was on top of it down, down down- _No air, no way to get out, the feeling of being crushed beneath the sand..._

He could feel an emotion creep along the link he had to his illusion: his target was getting scared. _Good. Let's up the ante_.

He had to make the illusion seem as real as possible, but at the same time, he needed to make sure that the fear didn't overwhelm his target. He would get in a lot of trouble if his target died while in the illusion before Fran could get the information.

He didn't really want to have to deal with the paperwork he would have to fill out if the target _did_ die.

Fran didn't like paperwork. It was annoying.

He let his mind drift back the the files he'd read about his target. There were many things that he was scared of, but one stood out more than the others: his fear of disappointing his mother. For a man who'd had such a strong relationship with his father, he'd really cared for his mother, but he'd had no contact with her since she'd left and didn't know if she was alive or not...

This was good. He could play with this.

_Alright, Vladdy. Let's see if you can deal with seeing your dead mother._

[][][][][]

Bel loved blood.

There wasn't another way to describe it. He loved the way it felt when it was sliding off of his hands; he loved the way it tasted when he licked it off of his knives; he loved the way it would start out bright red when it came gushing out, but when it was left in the air for a while, it would turn darker. He loved the fact that everyone on the Earth needed it to live. He loved the fact that there was so much blood out there for him to spill.

He let out a snicker as he dodged one of the bodyguards' attacks and tossed one of his knives. The guard let out a gagging sound as the knife was lodged in his throat; Bel gave a tug on the tiny, almost invisible string he'd tied to the knife, and the knife fell out, letting the guard fall to the ground with a _thud_. He pulled the knife to him and inspected it.

_Hmm... Not good enough._

The blood wasn't bright enough for Bel's taste.

_Oh well. Let's try another one!_

He spun around on his heel and kicked another guard in the stomach. These guards really were stupid. They'd approached him thinking that they were going to have an easy time of getting rid of the assassin. Shame that they were uneducated in the ways of the Varia. He tossed another knife, this one lodging itself in the stomach of the guard he'd just kicked. They weren't that good of fighters, either. All they knew was attack, attack, attack.

_It's going to kill them one day! Oh, right! That day is today!_

He'd left the Frog at the door to do his work, and was glad that he was going to have some fun while he waited for the illusionist to do his job. _How long is this stupid illusion-thingy going to take, anyway? The Prince wants to just kill him!_

How important was that information anyway? Bel had tortured people before; it would be a whole lot easier-

_And_, he thought as he gutted another guard, _a whole lot more fun!_

When the other guard dropped, there was only one more guard left. He seemed a little hesitant when Bel faced him. Bel stared him down, and the guard actually _flinched. _Bel grinned.

_Pansy._

He dashed forward, knives in both hands, and jumped, just when the guard tried to punch him. The guards come to the party with no weapons, and Bel could only laugh at that. He landed on the guard's shoulders, and proceeded to stab the eyes, then the neck, the collar bone, and he continued to stab as he fell back to the ground, drawing blood; more and more blood came out as the guard fell back. Bel hopped onto him and stabbed at the stomach, wanting red blood, bright blood, _good_ blood-

"Senpai..."

Bel stopped his stabbing and glanced up at his kouhai who was standing near the alleyway entrance, the illusion-man that he'd created standing next to him, their target flung up and over his shoulder. Fran was staring at him with that blank face, eyes not showing anything; Bel would have mistaken it for his kouhai's normal face, if it weren't for the fact that Fran was biting his bottom lip. Bel stared at that pink lip, wondering why it was so tempting to go over and bite it. He stood up and slid his knives back into their places. "Ushishishi. Finished Froggy?"

Fran had the illusion-man place their target on the ground before he got rid of the illusion. "He told me everything, once I'd shown him his dead mother."

Bel walked over to him and looked down at their target, his insane smile still plastered on his face. Fran stared at him. "You created a 'when', senpai."

The way Fran was breathing was causing a slight stir in Bel's stomach; breathing in didn't seem like the problem. It was breathing out; the air seemed forced, almost painful.

"Hmm?"

"They didn't attack you. You attacked them."

"Ushishishi. The Prince was bored, silly Froggy."

Fran didn't respond; instead, he leaned down and poked their target in the stomach. "He will be unconscious for only while longer, senpai. If you are going to kill him, do it now."

Bel sighed. He preferred it when his targets were alive when he killed him but-

He looked over at his Froggy again, who was still biting his lip and was staring at the target with wide eyes. _That illusion must have taken a lot of energy from him. Fine, I'll give in this once._

He dropped down to the ground and stabbed Vladimir in the heart twice. It was all very anti-climactic and void of the drama Bel liked when he was killing someone. "There," he said as he pulled out his knife and cleaned it absentmindedly. "He'd dead."

Fran, who had paled slightly, nodded. "Good," he said, before he promptly passed out.

Bel caught him before he hit the ground and held him close, cocking his head to the side and staring down at the closed eyes. _He's kinda...cute when unconscious. _His heart skipped a beat and Bel stared straight ahead, his eyes unblinking. _What was I thinking?_

He sighed and stood up, still holding the unconscious illusionist in his arms. The little illusionist had told him that the illusion he had performed suck out a lot of energy. "Stupid Frog, using your energy like that..." He walked out of the alleyway, hoping that the incoming storm would keep attention on the sky and off of him.

Their original hotel was located exactly one mile away from the alley, but the Varia assassins always changed hotels after killing. That way they would be less likely to be caught, even though the Varia never got caught. He looked down at Fran, who had moved his face closer to Bel's chest, as if seeking warmth. "Che, you're going to make me carry you all the way to the new hotel, aren't you, Froggy?"

Fran didn't respond, and Bel sighed up at the darkening sky. "If it starts to rain before I get us there, I'm going to kill you."

It was ironic that, at that moment, the sky let out a loud crashing sound and the rain began to fall.

Bel dashed to the nearest building he could see and pushed his back against the wall. He sighed and looked down at Fran. "It's a good thing you're cute, Froggy. I am, though, blaming you if I get sick."

And he ran the entire way to the hotel.

[][][][][]

_Being warm was a whole new experience to the newly named child called Fran._

The one who had saved him, Mukuro (his Master), had put them up in a place called a 'hotel' for the night; there were two beds, a fireplace, a table, and something called a phone that let people talk to each other without having to see them.

Fran was currently sitting on one of the beds, the big (and warm) blanket wrapped around him and a plate of food resting on his lap.

"I can eat this? It's okay, right?" He asked of his Master.

The boy (his hair resembled one of the fruits Fran had come to like while caged called a pinapple) turned and gave him a look of 'are you an idiot'. "No, I just gave that to you so that it could rot."

Fran looked down at the plate, his face blank. "Oh, okay," he said, making his voice speak out in mono-tone. "If that's what it's for, then..." he began to stare at it, wondering in the back of his mind how long it would take for the food to actually rot. He tried to ignore the pain coming from his empty stomach.

Mukuro made a sighing sound somewhere to his left and the next thing he knew his Master had taken the fork and shoved some of the food in his mouth. "You've never heard of sarcasm, have you?"

Fran blinked up at him, fork still in his mouth. His Master sighed. "Chew," he said, getting up from Fran's bed and moving over to his. "I'm not going to babysit you. Eat your food then go to bed."

Fran took the fork out of his mouth and began to chew his mouthful of food. "What's sarcasm?"

"Hmm?"

"That thing you did, you called it 'sarcasm'. What is it?"

"A form of rude irony. Now stop talking, finish your food and go to bed!"

Fran went back to staring at his plate, thinking.

"Your wish is my command, Master."

As he dodged the pillow that was tossed at him, Fran had to say that he liked the idea of sarcasm. He finished his food in silence, already in awe of his Master; they had only known each other for little less than a day, and already Fran was learning new things! He wondered what else he would be taught from this boy in his lifetime.

As he crawled into bed, wearing one of his Master's shirts (it was way too big, falling to a little over his knees and off of his shoulders), he had to give a silent thank you to the pineapple haired boy. He'd never been this warm before, his cage (as he called it) only having a small, thin and worn blanket that he would use to keep warm. _This blanket is much better_, he thought as he curled up into a ball and pulled the blanket over him.

He fell asleep within seconds, the warmth soothing him into a deep sleep.

[][][][][]

He was warm, and that, if nothing, was what jerked his consciousness back to his mind, and from his Mind-Room where Pity was. He let out a small moan at the throbbing that was in his head and curled up into a ball. He hated when his illusions gave him headaches; it meant that he'd overdone it. As the throbbing increased, he tried to focus on other things to take his mind away from the pain:

There was a small draft of cold air coming from somewhere to his left, so that meant that he was somewhere with a window; a hotel, most likely. He was laying on something soft, and his head was on something fluffy: a pillow, and a mattress. There was something heavy on top of him, heavy and warm, that was keeping him from moving around too much: to sum it all up, he was in a bed in a hotel room, and from the smells that were floating around the room, he was in a nicer hotel than the one he'd previously been in. Biting his lip at the headache that was slowly turning into a migraine, he opened his eyes and glanced around.

He was resting in the bed closest to the window, and he was the only one in the room. He could make out his frog hat sitting on the circular table by the window. The curtains covering the window were closed, but the breeze slipping through the windows were causing them to billow slightly at the ends. He focused his eyes on the moving curtains and tried to remember how he'd gotten there.

He remembered getting all of the information from their target; seeing his mother had driven him to the end. Then he remembered closing the illusion and opening the door to see Vladimir laying on the ground, covered in sweat and shaking. He'd had his illusion-man pick up the target and had began to find his senpai. Because it was Bel-senpai, he'd known that those men who'd come with the target were probably being killed, and so he'd made his way to the nearest alleyway he could find. Sure enough, his senpai had been in the process of killing the men.

He remembered calling out to his senpai; he remembered feeling sleepy and tired and just _confused_ and then-

"_You passed out._"

He sighed and leaned back against his pillow, biting his lower lip. He hated passing out; his head would feel lightheaded and his every thought would become confused. It was hard to concentrate after waking up, and Fran liked to have his mind clear and functioning properly. He wiggled his body slightly to get the feeling back into his extremities. After a while, the tingling feeling in his arms and legs went away; he hid a groan; his body was sore. He hated it.

The room was suddenly filled with a loud growling noise that made Fran blink repeatedly.

He also hated his stomach. It was a constant reminder that he had to eat; eating with the Varia meant family dinner (Lussuria made sure that they all ate together), and _that_ meant eating with Bel. Well, he was alone in a hotel, so he could call up some room service.

He was struggling to sit up in bed so that he could reach the phone on the table next to the bed when the door opened. He glanced over to see his senpai trudging in, holding a plate of food in his hands.

"Ah, little Froggy is awake."

Fran stopped trying to reach for the phone. "How long was I asleep?"

Bel walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge, still holding the plate in his hands. "Three days."

Fran stared down at the quilt covering him. _Three days...that's longer than it's ever been..._

"Froggy is weak."

Fran blinked up at his senpai, who had taken a sausage from the plate and was chewing on it. He decided to ignore the comment and pointed at the food. "Is that for me?"

Bel snickered. "Ushishishi, no. This is for the Prince."

Fran sighed. "Well, then I guess that I will need to call room service to bring me up some food; I don't think that I can walk down to get it. I will use the 'Prince's' card, of course."

Bel frowned and dumped the plate in his lap. "Here, eat it," he muttered. "Stupid Frog..."

Fran picked up a sausage and took a bite out of it. "So what have you been doing these three days."

Bel flopped down fully onto the bed, his arms underneath his head. "The Prince has been scouting. We still have a job to do."

Fran swallowed, remembering the second part of the job. "We need to find the girl."

Bel snickered and began tossing one of his knives in the air. "The Prince has already located her! I found her on the first day!"

"And..."

Bel frowned. "And what?"

Fran tried to hide his urge to hit his 'senpai' upside the head. "Did you do anything?"

"No."

Fran took a very angry bite out of his eggs. "Why didn't you kidnap her and give her over, like we were supposed to? You don't need me to do that; really, senpai, you're not very bright."

He waited a second, sighed, then pulled out the knife in his upper shoulder. He wondered how long it would take for Bel to get tired of stabbing him; he never felt any of them.

"The Prince is very smart. He's a genius."

_A genius who refers to himself in third person,_ he thought, trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of his head saying that he liked it when Bel referred to himself in third person. He _didn't_ like it. He didn't!

"Why didn't you get her, senpai?"

Bel snickered and stole Fran's last sausage. "Because, what better way to make a little girl come to you than with a cute animal?"

Fran swallowed. "I'm not going to help you, senpai. I'm not going to wear that_ thing_ again."

Bel suddenly surprised him by shoving the plate to the side and leaning over him. Fran gulped and quickly made his face emotionless, trying to tell his heart to stop beating as fast as it was. "Ushishishi. Froggy doesn't really have a choice; the Prince carried him all the way to this hotel in the rain. The Frog really needs to repay the Prince."

"I can give you money."

"The Prince doesn't want money."

Fran turned away from him and gave a silent sigh. In these types of situations he'd learned it was best to ignore what Bel was trying to get him to do. "I'll make it up to you later, senpai. Just tell me what you have found out about the girl."

Bel became serious. "I tracked her while you were asleep, and gathered all of the data in a file," he said as he got up and walked over to the table in the corner. Fran bit back a sarcastic comment and watched with a blank face as Bel walked back to his bed, file in hand. "She has a caretaker," he muttered as he sat down. "The day for the target begins at seven fifteen, exactly. At seven thirty, she takes a bath, and then is led down to the kitchen for breakfast. She is given fifteen minutes to eat, and then she is dressed for the day, her hair and teeth are taken care of, and then they go off to the park. She spends two hours there, where she plays with her play mate, Dimitri."

Bel paused to flip the page.

"She has ballet practice at eleven to one, and then it is time for lunch. They always eat at the same place every time: Glacier's Palace. She is given a salad and then it is back to the mansion for her daily studies. She studies until five, then she is given diner, and is in bed by eight."

Fran blinked. "That's a big life for a six year old."

Bel snickered. "When the Prince was little, that was a daily life."

"I would hate to be a prince, then."

"Ushishishi. Good thing Froggy is a peasant, right?"

Fran ignored him. "So, when will we get her?"

Bel glanced down at the file, frowning. "Hmmm... The best timing would be at the park. We could just..grab her. Her caretaker doesn't really pay attention to her there; she has a boyfriend that she meets up with."

Fran blinked at him. "And so when she isn't looking-"

"Ushishi. We get her!"

[][][][][]

She was small, with blond ringlets that bounced around her head while she played. She seemed outgoing for her age, and was wearing a bright pink dress as she played around the park with her friends. Everything was right on schedule: the target was where she was supposed to be; her friend was with her; his parents were sitting on the hill off in the distance, talking; the caretaker was behind a tree with her boyfriend. There was only a slight problem.

"I scouted seven guards, senpai."

Bel bit the tip of his pointer finger, scowling. "This is going to make things a bit more difficult."

Fran sighed and squatted down to the ground, trying to hide his hideous frog hat from being seen. It _was_ going to be more difficult; it appeared that word of Vladimir's death had reached his father, and so now there were guards protecting his daughter. To make things worse, the guards had situated themselves so that they weren't seen by those at the park, making plain old slaughtering them out of question. This only left one option.

"Senpai, I would like it if you left the job of killing them to me."

The only sign Bel gave that he'd heard him was a small humming sound.

"You can be in charge of the dumping."

"Why don't you just use an illusion to cover up the deaths?"

Fran began rubbing his left wrist absentmindedly. "I'm tired. Creating that big of an illusion could put me out again."

"Then, what you going to do?"

"I'll have to snipe them, senpai."

Bel looked at him, a giant smirk on his face. His expressions made Fran's insides warm up and freeze at the same time. "The Froggy will..._snipe_ them?"

He threw his head back and laughed, causing Fran to look around to make sure that no one had located them. "Senpai," he said in mono-tone. "Please keep it down. You'll make us get caught."

Bel quieted his snickering and poked Fran's frog hat. "An illusionist is going to snipe the guards? And just how are you going to pull that one off?"

Fran placed a hand on his frog hat and began to take it off. Bel gave him a very intense gaze but Fran ignored it and pulled the frog hat off of his head. "I was trained."

Bel jerked slightly, the knife he had out in his hands faltering in mid-swipe. "You were...trained? By your master?"

Fran, who had gotten up from his crouched position, turned and faced Bel with a blank look. "No," he said, before dashing out of their hiding place and disappearing into the trees surrounding the park.

Bel stared after him, his knife dangling from his fingertips. "Hmmm..." He grabbed the frog hat Fran had left, smirking. "This is a new side of you, Froggy. Ushishi. The Prince quite likes it."

[][][][][]

The best place he found was on a tree, a few feet away from the actual park. He situated himself against the trunk and scanned for all of the guards.

_One, two...three, four, five...six and...seven._

It was a perfect spot; he could see all seven, and get a clear shot. He calmed his fast beating heart and closed his eyes, putting a small, simple illusion over himself so that he wouldn't be seen; he felt the sap in his energy and put a hand against the tree trunk to stop himself from falling. _God, I used more energy than I'd thought. This is going to suck. _For a second, he focused just on his breathing.

In, out. In, out. In, out.

The sudden pain that ripped through his chest caused him to gasp and almost fall off of the tree branch. His eyes began to water and his mouth opened up in a silent scream. _Breathe, Fran. Breathe, _his subconscious told him frantically. He took three deep breaths before reaching up and wiping the tears away from his face. _Ignore it; you've felt worse pain before..._

He shook his head to clear his mind as memories threatened to break through and focused on the guards. He needed a weapon that would kill them swiftly, but one that wouldn't leave a lot of blood. He needed a weapon he was good with.

He weaved his hands together and created a ball of floating mist. With it, he weaved in a little bit of his flame, reaching his hand in and pulling out a bow. He set the bow on his thigh, then created ten arrows. While he normally fought with just flames, if he ever needed a weapon he preferred the bow and arrow; he could kill effortlessly, and from a distance. It was a very handy weapon.

He let the mist illusion disappear, ignored the drop in his energy, and placed the bow in his left hand. He took a single arrow and aimed, his left eye closed and his right eye open. He took one breath and let the arrow fly.

The guard stumbled, spluttered, and crumpled to the ground. Fran tried not to smirk as he readied another arrow, taking aim at guard number two, who hadn't even noticed his fallen comrade. He held for a second, then fired again; the guard went down. He was able to get three more down before a guard noticed what was happening. _Uh oh..._ he thought as he hurried two arrows; he fired them right after another, each of the remaining guards falling to the ground. Quickly, he got rid of his bow and climbed down from the trees.

He met Bel at the base of the tree. The assassin was leaning against the tree trunk, his arms folded. "So you're a sniper now, Froggy?"

Fran decided to ignore him. Instead, he looked over at their target. "Are you ready?"

Bel 'hmm'ed.

Fran stared at him. "Senpai?"

His senpai suddenly pulled out his frog hat and slammed it back onto his head. Fran held back the feeling and urge to wince. "Later, Froggy," the killer whispered. "Later you are going to tell the Prince what you really are."

As he watched his senpai wander off in the direction of the first guard to begin the cleaning process, their target completely forgotten, Fran had to finger his hat absentmindedly. He made to take a step forward when the pain he'd felt earlier shot through his body, weaving up his spine and digging deep into his head.

Fran collapsed to the ground, pulling into himself, his arms wrapped around his body as the pain made him shiver and burn and cry. He let out gasps of air; each breath hurt like hell, and the dizziness in his head made it hard to see. The burning sensation in his heart increased, and Fran finally let out a small whimper.

_It hurts.  
_

_

* * *

_I got this chapter done faster than I had thought I would. I hope that you like it, and please tell me what you thought. Again, thank you for reading this.

Lots of love,

UO


	4. The Machine

**Title**: Illusione Orale

**Summary**: When an old, rival Mafia Family begins to grow a bio-engineered weapon to completely wipe out all of the Vongola, no one takes the threat seriously. It's only when the thing begins to kill that they realize their only hope lies in the legend of a single emotion of pity, that was sent down from the stars to save them. BelxFran, and others.

**_Rating:_ M**

_**Disclaimer: **_Oh, Katekyo Hitman, Katekyo Hitman, where art thou? ...oh yeah, you belong to someone else. Not me. I swear, Katekyo Hitman! One day I _will _get you back!

Well, here it is. Chapter four. Before things get started, there are some things to do. First:

-GLOMP-

That is for all of my reviewers! I love you guys! You keep me going!

**aimeeshii: **Thank you! I'm glad that the way I write him is likable. I have to stay true to the sarcastic side of him, but at the same time I need to stay true to the damaged side of him as well.

**fuwacchi: **Glad you like the story! And I'm really glad that it's got you hooked, even though you're not a BelxFran fan. ^^

**Seriyuu: **Yes, a sniper. I see him as more of a long distance assassin, rather than an up and close assassin. I think that, when given the chance, Mukuro could be relaxed. We just haven't seen that chance. Ever. Oo As for Pity...well, he's got a special role, and I hope to go further into detail in the next couple of chapters. ^^**  
**

**Anonwithlotsoflove:** -blushes deeply- Wow. My first marriage proposal. I'm rather giddy. ^^ I plan to write lots of chapters, actually. This chapter advances the actual plot, so I'm planning on lots of chapters to come.

**ELunamoon: **Why, thank you! I wanted a story mainly about him, and...this came out. I'm glad you like it!**  
**

**akkiofthefunk: **Wow. -blushes- Thank you! I'm glad you like it!**  
**

**Red Spider Lily: **-giggles- Thank you! Here is your update!**  
**

**: **Thank you! I had always wondered about how, exactly, he became Mukuro's apprentice, and also about his nonexistent past. ^^ I wanted the romance between Bel and Fran to be there, but I didn't want it to completely dominate the story, and for it to be more of the icing on the cake kind of thing. 

Now, here we go!

**_Warnings: memories of torture and experimentation and mentions of attempted suicide. _**If some of these things make you feel uncomfortable and you are still interested in this story, send me a PM and I can let you know what happens in this chapter. Thanks for reading!

* * *

_When he'd been thirteen, Fran had tried to kill himself. _

He'd taken a butcher knife and slit open his forearms, watching the blood seep down his arms and drip onto the floor. It had been amazing, how much blood had come from just his arms. He watched it; he was mesmerized by how the color started out light, and then grew darker and darker and just kept coming, like a river; the water seemed to be endless, the way it flowed. His blood was acting like the rivers: a continuous flow. And when he could no longer stand, he fell down and sat in his own blood, letting his mind teeter in and out of consciousness, the darkness threatening to take him at any moment.

He didn't really remember when the nightmares had started, but he did remember what they were about, and what had happened to him in them; what hurt Fran the most was that the things that happened in the nightmares were not fake. They were real, and the events in the dreams had happened to him. He didn't know how to make the images go away, and he knew that no one could help the pain that he felt deep inside. All he knew was that when he was not awake, when he was in a sleep that did not let him dream, he wouldn't remember or feel the pain.

And so, he'd tried to make himself fall into an dreamless sleep forever.

He didn't know for how long he'd been lying on the cold floor of the kitchen, but when we woke up he knew he wasn't in his home; the ceiling of the kitchen was black. The ceiling he was looking at was white. There was a hissing sound coming from somewhere in the room, and a beeping sound coming from his left; there was also something in his throat, making it so that he couldn't speak or make noise.

He was in a hospital.

And he was still alive.

He closed his eyes hard, letting the tube in his throat send air down to his lungs. God, he'd just wanted to sleep! Why couldn't they let him sleep? All he wanted to do was sleep!

"Awake now?"

Fran let his eyes drift open and over to his left, where the purple, pineapple-looking hair caught his gaze. _Shit._

"What were you thinking, little one?"

Fran, who couldn't do more than blink, didn't do anything.

"Honestly, this is a pain."

_Master hates me now. I bet he wishes that he hadn't taken me out of the lab. _

"Don't do it again," he said before he got out of the chair and walked out of the room.

Fran watched him leave, confusion buzzing around in his head. Wasn't he in trouble? Why hadn't his Master punished him? He'd been punished before, back in the lab. When he'd done something wrong, like talked out of place, or talked at all, or he didn't perform a task perfectly the first time, he'd had his head shoved underneath water, or he'd gone without food for an entire week. He'd even been whipped a few times.

"_You've been naughty," They_ would say. _"Because you've been naughty, we need to punish you."_

He'd done something wrong: he'd tried to kill himself.

So why wasn't he being punished?

He was still pondering this when, two days later, M.M walked into the room, holding her coat in her hand and a frown on her face. "You know, you've really done something stupid to make Mukuro create an illusion of himself so that he could see you face to face." She sat down on the chair that his Master had occupied two days ago. "Why?"

Fran turned his eyes to the ceiling. M.M sighed, annoyance heard in the air that left her mouth.

"Fine, don't tell me."

She stood up and was getting ready to leave when a small, tired voice, rough from the tube that had been taken out the previous day, reached her ears.

"I was tired of being scared."

[][][][][]

Pain.

There was a time in his life that Fran would have done almost anything to make the pain stop. He'd gone to therapists, seen the doctors, and he'd even tried to end his life. None of them made the pain stop. It just made the pain worse. One of the therapists that he'd seen said it could take years for his scars to heal. It had been almost twelve years.

Why hadn't the pain stopped?

Grimacing, Fran curled deeper into himself, trying to take the deep, calming breaths that one of the doctors had told him to do when he felt any pain. _God, it just makes it hurt even more. _He inhaled, and felt a searing pain tap his chest in a repeating rhythm.

Tap, tap-tap. Tap, tap-tap.

_Make it stop._

Fran knew that the pain that his doctors had been talking about was the mental pain. He still had the occasional nightmare, but this-

This was new. This was different from the mental pain.

And it hurt worse.

_Make it stop. Make it stop. Please, make it stop._

"_If you're a good boy, I'll stop the pain, but you need to do it right next time."_

_I'll be good, please; just make the pain stop! I' m being good, see? I'm not doing anything bad. _

"Froggy?"

_Please._

"Hey, Froggy? Why are you on the ground? We need to get back to the hotel."

"Please..."

"Froggy...?"

"Make it stop..."

"Make what stop?"

"The pain; the memories. Make them stop."

And he let the warmth of darkness overtake him, leaving his senpai standing over his body, and entering his safe haven, completely oblivious to his senpai leaning down and taking his body in his arms in a gentle hold.

"I'll do my best, Fran," Bel whispered as he caressed Fran's cheek softly. "But you need to tell me what it is that happened to you."

He was still holding the illusionist in a tight grip when four shadows covered him. Bel glanced up to see four big, burly body guards. No doubt they were the reinforcements. They were all holding guns in their hands, and they were sporting giant smirks on their faces.

"Thought you could get away after killing our comrades, did ya punks?"

"Well, you can't. We're gonna kill you."

"You're gonna die, freak."

Bel gave out a sigh and placed Fran gently on the ground. Looks like he would get his day's worth of killing in after all. He was about to stand up from his crouch when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked down to see his Frog with misted eyes half open, and it looked like Fran wasn't truly looking at him. "Don't, senpai...they have guns... Guns kill people."

Clearly the illusionist wasn't in his right state of mind, either.

"Don't worry, Froggy. Guns don't kill people: Prince the Ripper does."

And with that, Bel turned his attention to the four dead men, a smirk stretching across his face. He was going to have fun with this.

_**-Altai Mountains, Siberia**_

_**Thirteen Years Previous,**_

_**0358 Hours-**_

He was crying, and that, more than anything, was the reason why _they_ stopped.

"Has this ever happened before?"

"No...he has never expressed this feeling before now."

"They told us that this wouldn't hurt him..."

"He's bleeding..."

"Stop the machine! STOP!"

The whirring; the beeping; the clanking; the pounding; all of the noises stopped, and as soon as the noises stopped, the pain stopped as well. 666 collapsed in a small heap on the ground, his thin arms clinging to each other. "No..."

The leader of the group, the Head Scientist, gave out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn, this means I have to call the boss."

The group consisting of _them_ seemed to freeze at the thought. "W-why?" One asked rather hesitantly. "We can just try again in a few minutes! Let's give him a five minute break to get some of his energy back and then we can-"

The scientist was cut off as he was slammed against the wall by the leader. "Are you an idiot? This machine is supposed to tear out that _thing_ in him! They weren't supposed to fuse together! Every minute that _thing_ is inside that boy," he bellowed, flinging his arm out to point at the child huddling in a tiny ball, "they both get stronger." He turned his attention back to the other man, who was cringing under his gaze. "Do you want to be the one to deal with him when he's stronger than he is now?"

The man shook his head quickly. "No, sir! N-no I do not!"

"Good," the leader said before he whipped out his cell phone. "We'll try it one more time, and then if it doesn't work, we'll call the boss down, understood?"

The scientists all nodded.

"Then attach him back to the machine."

666 curled in tighter, trying to make himself as small as possible. If he was small, then they wouldn't be able to grab him, right? He tried hard to take control of his mind, so that he could stay calm. It was a very hard thing for a five year old to do. And so, when a hand grabbed his shoulder, he flipped out, screaming.

"No! No more! No more!" he cried, yanking back and falling back onto the floor. "No..."

Two other scientists tried to grab him; he kicked one in the face, and as the one backed away, another tried to grab his head. He bit down hard on the advancing hand, hard enough to draw blood, and held on. He held on for a good minute, applying pressure every few seconds. The scientist cried out in agony and tried tearing the child off. Three other men assisted him, and eventually they were able to pry 666 off and they tossed him into the wall; he hit his head and saw stars.

As the injured scientist was carted off out of the room, the leader turned an icy glare to the child. As 666 tried to clear his eyesight, he vaguely saw the leader reach for something near the left side of his waist. A split second later there was a click, a small _bang_, a small cut on 666's right cheek, and a hole in the wall by his head.

666 started shaking.

The leader advanced slowly, taking small steps, the thing in his hand. "Oh, you don't know what this is, do you?" He ignored the increase of shaking from the child and looked at the object in his hand with fondness. "This is a gun, and it can kill you in less than twenty seconds. Now, none of us here want you to die," he said, his voice light and cheery. "But, if you continue to act like this I will have no choice but to use this," he said, holding up the device called a gun.

666 tried to fuse himself to the wall in his fear. "I- I don't want... I don't want you to use that..."

The leader had stopped walking when he was right in front of the boy. He bent down so he was looking straight into 666's eyes. "Then obey," he hissed, and 666 could only nod his head repeatedly.

Their staring match was interrupted when the machine hissed loudly before a boom sound came from it, and smoke came rising from the back. The Head Scientist looked over and stood up before walking swiftly over to the machine to inspect it. After the inspection he looked furious as he grabbed a pair of wires and yanked them off of the machine. "Who was the bloody idiot who connected these two wires to the machine?" he yelled, holding up the wires.

A single, blond haired girl walked forward, shaking almost as bad as 666 was. "I-I did...sir. I- I'm sorry!"

The leader tossed the wires to the ground and held up the gun. "Yes, I bet you are."

He fired.

The girl fell to the ground with a dull _thud_.

"All of you, come here and fix this!"

As the remaining scientists dashed towards that machine, 666 crawled over to the girl on the ground. He leaned over her so he could get a good look at her face. He cringed when his eyes made contact with her blank ones. Shaking her gently, he muttered, "Wake up, you're supposed to fix that machine."

Her body moved with the shaking, but it didn't do anything else.

Shaking himself, he put a hand over her heart, trying to feel her heart beat.

There wasn't one.

He pulled back sharply. This girl was dead. She was the first dead person he had ever seen.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump. "See? That's what guns do. They kill people," was whispered into his ear before a black bag was placed over his head and he was forced on his feet and out of the room with the smoking machine and the dead girl.

_Guns kill people. Guns kill people._

_Guns are bad._

_Bad, bad, bad!_

_Guns...they kill people. People who are killed don't wake up ever again. They sleep forever._

_I want to sleep forever..._

_**Present Time**_

"Senpai, why are you calling the stupid Commander?"

His kouhai's voice was weak from the fever he was sick from, and there was sweat covering every inch of his body. He'd had nightmares again the previous night, Bel knew. "No reason, Froggy. Sleep now, or I'll knock you unconscious."

The illusionist bit his lip before nodding and snuggling back into the covers, his eyes closing shut, letting Bel see the dark circles that went around both eyes.

_Froggy hasn't been sleeping well. Stupid nightmares._

Bel wasn't the type of prince to care about anyone, and certainly not Mammon's replacement. At least that was what he'd thought.

Fran was...different, to say the least. Bel could sympathize with him. The prince remembered his very first nightmare; it had happened after he had killed his family and went to the Varia. He'd tossed and turned all night, visions of his parents and brother haunting him in his sleep until he couldn't take it anymore.

It had been Mammon who'd saved him, and that was the reason why Bel held Mammon in such high regard. The acrobaleno had told him that the first kills were always the hardest, and that they always came back to haunt you. He'd said that even he still had some nightmares from his first kill; it was the same for every member of the Varia.

Even Xanxus.

"Killing people isn't an easy job on the mind," Mammon had said. "It gets to you, and sometimes it can eat you up from the inside and tear you apart. Don't let it do that to you. Now, you need to give me some money for comforting you."

So Bel could feel for the Frog. He knew where Fran was coming from.

_But I still don't understand you_.

The ringing in his ear stopped, and soon Squalo's voice came booming out.

"VOI! It's almost two in the fucking morning, Bel! What do you want?"

"We're coming home."

There was a moment of silence from the other end. "Actually," Squalo said, his voice completely serious, "we need you back. The big Boss has called everyone to Japan for a meeting; something is going on, and it looks big. It also is connected to what you two have been doing over there. What's been going on?"

Bel sighed and sat down on his bed. "We were asked to kill someone who was the son of someone believed to be working in a ghost lab called-"

"Xaxis."

Bel frowned. "How did you know?"

Squalo exhaled. "I think that you two should leave as soon as you can. I'll get the tickets for the earliest flight as possible."

"Froggy is sick."

"...And that's a problem?"

Bel turned to look at the illusionist. He was curled up in a ball, the blankets pulled around him, and was biting his lip, something Bel knew he did to distract from the pain he was feeling. He suddenly wondered why he had told Squalo that Fran was sick; it wouldn't do anything.

"No reason, I'm just telling you so that you know why he is not acting like himself when you see us."

"...That's not a good enough reason, Bel, but whatever. I'll get you two the first tickets to Japan in the morning. Be there on time."

He hung up.

Bel stared at his phone, a frown dancing on his face. "Odd..."

_**-Japan, one day later.**_

_**1849 Hours-**_

Tsuna looked nervous about something.

That was the first thing that Fran recognized when he walked into the room.

Everyone was gathered around the big table centered in the middle of the room, all of Tsuna's guardians gathered around him. He looked tired, like he'd been up all night. Fran could sympathize with him; he'd hardly gotten any sleep, since he'd been woken up at three in the morning so that he and Bel could catch their flight to Japan.

Fran and his senpai were the last to arrive at the Vongola Headquarters, being hurried into the building by two of the building's guards and to the top floor that didn't exist to the public eye. There they were directed into a room, where almost all of the Vongola's allies were sitting and waiting.

Fran shivered and huddled deeper into his Varia jacket. He'd started feeling sick after he'd woken up, and his fever had progressed from there.

_Something bad is going to happen. Maybe not now, but it will happen. I can feel it._

There was a sudden silence as Tsuna stood up and placed his hands on the table.

"Thank you for coming at such short notice. I wish that I could say this was a meeting for old times' sake, but sadly, it's not. This meeting is nowhere close to that." He looked up, and the dark circles under his eyes stood out in the light. "Something big is going on, and it's not something good.

"Lately, over the past two months, there have been reports of people going missing. Normally, this wouldn't have anything to do with the Vongola, but after further investigation, the missing people have been revealed as illusionists," Tsuna said as he held out a hand for something. Gokudera passed a folder over to him; Tsuna opened it and continued. "What's odd about this is that there is a pattern that has appeared with the disappearances. First: they disappear and a report is filed by family or friends, but that report doesn't make it to the police. Second: exactly three days later, a second missing persons report is filed, one that makes it to the police. Third: one week after the second report is filed and placed in the police's hands, the missing illusionist is found, dead, having been seemingly tortured."

The room felt cold, and was eerily silent. Fran kept his face passive, as did everyone else.

Tsuna glanced at everyone before sighing and sitting down, hard, in his seat.

"There's more. Last week, Vendicare was attacked."

There were gasps of surprise and shock, each member around the table sharing looks of worry. It was Lussuria who broke up the mumbling. "But it's Vendicare. No one can break in or out of that."

The Tenth Boss of the Vongola and his guardians all looked grave, and the table immediately went silent again. Tsuna looked like he couldn't talk anymore, and Hibari stood up; he looked just about as tired as the Tenth did. "They, whoever _they_ are, did."

Squalo slammed his fist on the table. "VOI! So what? They didn't take anything, did they? It's not like there is any big danger in there that we can't handle, anyway."

There were shouts of agreements and a chorus of 'yeah!' floating through the room. Only one person, Enma Kozato of the Shimon family (the Shimon family had been Allies for six years) still looked uncertain. Chrome, Fran noticed, looked like she was going to cry.

Ryohei slammed his fist in the air. "We can beat whatever they send at us, to the extreme! Don't worry!"

The morale around the table was getting stronger with each second, but when Fran looked up he caught Tsuna's gaze. The look in his Boss's eyes apologized for something. Fran didn't know what Tsuna would have to apologize for, but then he opened his mouth.

Fran's heart started to pump faster, and he had to tell himself to focus on his breathing. _In out in out in out in out in out-_

"They took Mukuro."

_In._

The silence was instant: Everyone who had been standing sat, and a few even slumped in their seats. Enma let out a heavy sigh and his head tipped forward slightly; Chrome bit her lip and the tears she'd been holding back fell freely. Gokudera was looking at the Tenth with wide eyes. "W-why didn't you tell us before this, Tenth?"

"Because I just found out myself, two days ago. That's why I called this meeting."

Yamamoto seemed hesitant to speak. "How? If they took Mukuro, then how-"

"H-he sent a message to me."

It was Chrome who had spoken.

Fran felt something tug at his heart, something that he wasn't familiar with. If his Master was in a desperate situation, why hadn't he contacted Fran? Fran knew his Master thought highly of him; Mukuro himself had said that if he'd believed in siblings, Fran would have been like a little brother to him. So why...?

"What did he say?" Bel asked, for once sounding like he was interested in the situation.

Chrome gulped. "He said that the people who'd taken him needed an illusionist. A powerful one. He said something about the other illusionists not being powerful enough, or something."

Xanxus grunted. "Why does this concern us? If some fuckers are experimenting on illusionists, why should we care?"

_Experimenting._

"_It's okay. Come with us. We're just going to do a little _experiment_. It'll be okay. I promise."_

Chrome gulped again. "H-he said that only an illusionist would work it. He didn't tell me what 'it' was, but he said it was something that, if powered properly, could destroy the entire Vongola."

Xanxus went quiet.

_Only an illusionist would work it._

"_It's a special little toy; it'll only work for you. Do you know why? No? It's because you're special. It's nice to be a special little boy, isn't it?"_

"Did he say what they wanted with him?"

"He said that he 'wasn't the right one', but they were 'willing to try anything' to get it to work. H-he...he said that they were pre..." she stopped and took a deep breath. "He said that they were preparing him for something."

She shivered and Tsuna put a hand on her shoulder. "Go on."

"He said that they'd told him in a few days' time he would be ready for the 'machine'."

Fran blinked as everyone burst into commotion about what this 'machine' was. He couldn't even hear them. The person next to him disappeared from his side, as did the table, and the chairs; eventually everyone rushed away from him and he was alone. He could hear his breathing, his heart pounding, his blood pumping; no one existed but him, and it was terrifying.

"_He said that they'd told him in a few days' time he would be ready for the 'machine'."_

The Machine.

"_Guess what, little boy? Today is a very special day. You're six now, and that means you have a very big surprise waiting for you. Do you know what the surprise is? No? Good. It would've been bad if you'd found out; I like it when people are surprised. Now, come with me. You get to meet the Machine today."_

"What do you think the machine does?"

"Is that what tortured those illusionists?"

Torture.

"_Stop it! Stop it!"_

_It was coming for him, reaching for him, and he couldn't move, couldn't breathe; the hand-like _thing_ reached for his head and grabbed him and he _screamed_. _

"_No!"_

_He could feel it in him, ripping at him, tearing at him, twisting and yanking at him and he couldn't move to stop it, his hands and legs being held down; it felt like he was being split apart, his very soul, his entire _being_ being slashed in half and he couldn't move or breathe and couldn't stop screaming-_

Stop it. Make it stop!

"_I'll make it stop for you, child."_

_And there was yelling, screaming, crying, and it wasn't coming from him anymore. The _thing_ in him suddenly disappeared, and he felt something warm close around him, something wipe away the tears. _

"_I've got you. I've got you."_

_And he was safe._

"I don't know if that is a plausible theory, but we can go with-"

Their conversation was interrupted by a dull _thud_ that suddenly echoed around the room. Bel turned to his left to see Fran's chair empty; Fran lay on the ground, his eyes closed, and sweat decorating his face. Xanxus scoffed. "Little shit can't even deal with one small fever. Piece of trash."

Tsuna glared at him. "Don't make conclusions before you have all the evidence, Xanxus."

The boss of the Vongola got up from his seat and made his way to bend down next to Fran's body. Bel had also gotten down and had the illusionist in his arms. "I've held him like this a lot over the past few days," Bel muttered, probably to himself.

Tsuna couldn't help but smile slightly, and he placed a hand on Fran's forehead, pulling back at how hot Fran was. "He's got a very high fever. We should get him to a hospital."

Bel made a move to stand up when a hand shot out and grabbed Tsuna's wrist. Startled, Tsuna jumped a little before locking eyes with the fevered illusionist.

"They can't..." he rasped. "They can't..."

Tsuna bent down so he could hear the assassin better. "They can't what?"

"The Machine. Don't let them put him in the Machine. The Hands, they...they..." he leaned up a bit and whispered something into Tsuna's ear. Tsuna jerked back. surprised at how childish Fran had spoken.

"Are you _serious?_"

The green, glossy eyes rolled up and back as Fran's head fell back sharply. Tsuna could only gape at him. Bel, he noticed, looked immensely worried. "Take him to the hospital," Tsuna said. "Now."

Bel nodded and stood up, holding the boy in his arms tightly.

As he watched the pair go he couldn't help the shiver that ran through his body. Gokudera came to stand by his side. "Tenth, you okay?"

Tsuna shook his head. "No, I'm not."

"_The Hands...they eat you, and they keep eating you until there's nothing left."  
_

_

* * *

_End of chapter four.

So, the plot of the story starts! -cheers- I hope that this chapter was interesting for you guys, and if you would, please leave your thoughts and feelings in the drop box called a review. It helps with my writing and lets me know that people like the story. =D

Lots of love,

UO


	5. Hacked

**Title**: Illusione Orale

**Summary**: When an old, rival Mafia Family begins to grow a bio-engineered weapon to completely wipe out all of the Vongola, no one takes the threat seriously. It's only when the thing begins to kill that they realize their only hope lies in the legend of a single emotion of pity, that was sent down from the stars to save them. BelxFran, and others.

**_Rating:_ M**

_**Disclaimer: **_Uh, I own them? ….I thought that my delusion meds were supposed to be working!

_**Authors Notes:**_I'm back, and I'm alive (surprisingly)! Finals week for college is coming up soon, and I've been trying to get ready (huge emphasis on _trying_), and I was planning on putting this chapter up after finals week but- I didn't. I procrastinated with my studying (procrastination is bad, do not do it. -smacks self-) and wrote this chapter. I'm rather proud. ...about the chapter, not the procrastinating... (maybe). I hope that you all enjoy it! And now, for the reviewers:

**aimeeshii**: Ha ha! Well, I'm glad that you were excited for the update. Thank you! You know, Fran is a hard person to write when sick... Here's the update, and I'm sorry if I kept you waiting!

**Lala-tan**: I'm continuing! Here's the update!

**akkiofthefunk**: I'm glad that it's suspenseful! I'm trying to make it suspenseful, but I think that I failed in this chapter. -hangs head-

**Seriyuu**: Hopefully your questions about the machine were answered in this chapter... Well, some of them. There's more to come. -evil snicker-

**One of the Colorless**: Thank you, and don't worry too much about Mukuro. I like him too much to do anything _seriously_ evil to him. Fran will get revenge. ….maybe.

**Mukuro x Bel**: Thank you! I'm glad that my stories make you happy!

**Blackthornhiei**: Thank you, I'm happy that it's believable. The part about Fran's pain will come soon.

**YAYfanfics101**: Gah, I updated, I updated! Here you go!

**xRynnX** : I didn't mean to make you cry! I'm sorry! Fran'll be okay. ….I think.

**inuki**: Thank you!

**lovely frost**: Here's more! I'm glad that you like it, and I hope a few of your questions have been answered. As for the hands...well, that will come later.

**xXCherryLicoriceXx**: That's all part of my evil plan: to get people hooked. I'm glad that it's working. Thank you! And I totally loved the cookie. It was awesome.

**Love Fran**: Well, I'm honored that my story is the first one that you've reviewed. Thank you!

Again, I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

It was cold out, the wind blowing strongly and causing people to walk with their heads down and their arms in front of their faces. The snow swirled around the many bodies trekking across the bridge by the Holborn station in London. It was a stronger snow storm then Claire Spark had seen in her entire lifetime. It was odd, because it normally didn't snow this hard.

"Claire, do you want someone to walk home with you?"

Claire turned back to her friend, who was busy closing up the register. She smiled before she shook her head, trying to keep herself from looking suspicious. "No, I need to run some errands before I go home, and I don't want you to have to wait for me."

Her friend looked at her with an odd look on her face. "You sure? You haven't been walking home with us like you usually do lately."

Claire shook her head again. "No, I'm sure. I'll walk home with you guys tomorrow. I just have to do some stuff."

"Okay. Be safe!"

Claire nodded before heading out of her store and heading towards Holborn Station, a heavy feeling weighing on her shoulders. She missed hanging out with her friends, but with her position as a Vongola Spy she didn't have much time for friends. She gathered information about other mafias and then met with a comrade and gave the information to him, and then the comrade gave the information directly to the Tenth Boss. Her job was important.

Recently, she had been asked to gather information about the disappearance of the many illusionists. It had taken a while, but in the past week she had managed to gather some very interesting information surrounding a lab called Xaxis and some of the engineering and experiments that had gone on inside. Her informant had soon been found slaughtered and dumped in a town far away from the actual lab, and his death confirmed her belief that the information that she held was valuable.

Very valuable.

Double checking her surroundings to make sure that she was alone, she hurried over to the side of the bridge and doubled back behind a building and darted into an alleyway. Hidden in the back of the alley, there was a rusted door, and she left her fists knock three times in a hurried pattern.

The door opened and she entered.

"You have the file?"

She should have known, by the crackling in his voice, that this person wasn't the person she was supposed to be meeting, but it had been a long day and she was tired and not paying any attention to small details.

Nodding, she pulled out a small vanilla file and held it in her hands. "This is all that I have managed to gather up. I hope that it is hopeful."

A hand appeared from the shadow that she was staring at; she'd never seen his face before, in all of their years of working together, but she had come to recognize his voice. She realized too late that something was off about him.

"Are you sick or something? You don't sound so good."

The was silence from the corner before- "I'm just coming down with a cold or something. My throat is all dry and itchy."

Claire nodded slowly.

"Give me the file, please."

Something wasn't right. Something wasn't right at all.

"Are you sure that it's just a cold?"

"Yes, now give me the damn file!"

Claire took a hurried step back. "Y-you know, how about we do this another day, huh? When you're feeling better?"

There was no answer, and instead a hissing sound surrounded her. It reminded her of the hissing sound that trains made right before they began to leave the train station. "Hey, are you sure you're-"

Her question was cut off as a foot appeared in front of her. She gulped and took another step back, staring at the foot. It didn't look right; the color was different; there were some metal parts sticking out of it; it didn't look like a normal foot. By the time she had looked up, the entire body of the person she had been talking to had appeared.

Her face went pale. "No...please-"

"No...please," the voice repeated back in jerky voice; it sounded almost exactly like a computer talking. "Claire Spark has been located," the voice stated, sounding more female then it had previously. "Proceeding with annihilation."

Claire backed up against the door, her mind telling her to scream, call out, _yell_ for fuck's sake, but her voice was frozen deep in her throat as she looked up at the _thing_ standing before her. "No-" she managed to make out, before _it_ was upon her.

The raging snow storm outside was the only thing that blocked the sound of her screams from the ears of the people walking by.

[*]*[*]

Bel had been in hospitals before.

He'd been there after he'd been on his first assassination. Xanxus had forced Squalo to take him out and show him how things were done in the Varia. Bel hadn't wanted to go, feeling that killing was all the same: you put something inside of the target to make them stop living. It was simple. But Xanxus had prevailed (by forcing a gun down both of their throats) and Squalo had taken Bel out on his first mission. Bel, being a prince, had been cocky, and his cockiness had landed him with a knife in his gut, blood transfusions, and a tube down his throat. No one in the Varia had shown him any pity. He'd been told that if he couldn't handle one small mission, then there was no way he would make it in the group. He'd made sure to prove them wrong the next time.

He looked down at the hand he was holding. It was pale and clammy, with an IV attached to the hand. He was gripping the blanket that was draping over Fran's body hard so that he wouldn't tighten his grip on the hand he was holding. "Come on, Froggy. Wake up."

After Fran had collapsed, he'd been transported to a hospital. It was one that was funded by the Vongola, so all of the staff working at the hospital were trustworthy. The illusionist was suffering from dehydration and a small concussion from when he'd hit his head on the ground. "You need to wake up, Froggy. You have some questions to answer."

Fran didn't stir.

Bel let out a sigh and brought the hand that was holding Fran's to his head. He sat there for a while, thinking over what had happened the last few days. _I have a feeling something big is coming..._

[*]*[*]

He was lying in a hospital bed, that much he knew, but what was confusing him was the fact that the area around him did _not_ look like a normal hospital surrounding. Biting his lip, he sat up, his eyes closed tight as pain shot up his spine. Gasping (sitting up had taken almost all of his strength), he let his legs slide over the side of the bed and touch the ground. It took him a while, but eventually he was able to stand on his feet without shaking. Taking a deep breath he began to walk around

The area around him was white, and when he looked down it didn't look like he was walking on any type of surface at all. It was like he was floating in the clouds.

_Fran, that was a really stupid way to describe this..._

He was confused. He'd been knocked unconscious before, but he'd never landed in a place like this until now. Normally, he'd drift in a sea of black, but this- this was odd. Sighing, he turned around, but instead of looking at endless white, he found himself looking at a long hallway. A hallway that looked _very_ familiar. He took a step forward hesitantly, not wanting to believe that this hallways was _the_ hallway.

With every step he took forward, more things appeared in front of him: a few windows to his left; a white board with lots of writing on it to his right, and at the end of the hallway was a door. It was a door that seemed familiar as well. _This is just plain odd..._ he thought as he stopped walking.

"_Little one..."_

And things just kept getting more odd. Bars appeared on the top part of the door, as well as a handle and the electric wires that Fran remembered so much.

"_Little one, please tell me that you can hear me."_

Fran took a curious step towards the door. "...Master?"

There was a rustle from the other side of the door, and Fran walked as close to the door as he dared. "_Little one, is it you?"_

"Yes, it is."

"_God... Then they haven't gotten you..."_

"Master? What are you talking about?"

"_It doesn't matter at the moment. Listen, I don't think that I can keep us in Limbo for a long time, so I'm going to tell you all that I know, but you might need to fill in the rest of it for me."_

So he was in Limbo... That explained a lot of things.

Limbo was the place illusionists met, talked, and exchanged information with each other when they were unconscious. It was a place that only illusionists could get to, and a place that was only accessible if both parties were unconscious. He'd had conversations with Mukuro in Limbo before, but they'd always taken place at a park, or somewhere that Fran felt comfortable.

As if reading his mind, Mukuro said, "_I didn't have the strength to make the park this time, little one."_

Fran shook his head, worry spreading all throughout his body. Mukuro sounded tired. Really tired. "Master, please- tell me if _they_ have taken you to the Machine! Please!"

He was tempted to grip the bars, but he didn't know if they would actually shock him, like they had done many times when he'd been trapped in that room. He felt scared, like he had when he was a child, living in the lab. "Master-"

"_I've only been placed in one machine."_

Fran let out a small puff of air, the worry leaving him with each breath he took.

There were two machines in the lab that Fran feared: one was a Tester, and it examined the amount of illusion power a certain illusionist had. Fran had been placed in the Testing machine many times as a child, so that _they_ could document and chart his growth of his abilities.

And then there was the Machine. The Machine that reached for you, grabbed a hold of your entire being and took it away. The Machine that _devoured_ you.

"_Listen, little one. I don't have much time, and there are things that you need to know."_

"What things?"

"_Things that have been going on in this lab: how it was brought back to life, who is funding it, and what they are creating."_

Fran blinked, confused. "What they are creating? You mean they are making something here?"

He could practically _feel_ Mukuro sigh._ "Yes, and from what I've heard, it's something big. Really big."_

Fran sat down on the floor in front of the door, thinking. While he'd been in the lab, there had been people that he hadn't seen except for small glimpses. One time (it was possibly the third time he'd escaped from his room) he'd traveled to the other side of the lab. There he found an entirely different world, with many odd looking machines and objects. He'd even seen a robot looking thing walking around in one of the rooms. Unfortunately, before he'd been able to look around more, since a larger person turned around the corner, spotted him, and pressed the button on the wall that made the loud noises and hurt his ears.

"I always wondered if they were doing something on the other side of the lab... I'd seen some stuff, but I never really thought about what they were creating. That side must be where they got their...machines..."

He could almost feel something touch his face, like a caress, but it was gone almost a split second later. _"Little one, I need you to give what I'm about to tell you straight to Tsunayoshi as soon as possible. As much as I hate to admit it, but I need his help."_

Fran then knew that the situation was more serious than he had originally thought; If his Master was asking for help from _Tsuna _then it _was _big. "Alright," he said.

"_Alright. Let me start by telling you about the leader..." _

_**-Altai Mountains, Siberia. **_

_**2338 hours-**_

"GRaCE is falling apart again."

Boris let out an irritated sigh and turned to look at the young scientist that was standing in front of him, his face pale. "Well, then fix her!"

The scientist seemed to shrink back a little. "B-but sir, we've exhausted almost all of the power we got from the illusionists and-"

Boris suddenly let out a loud yell and slammed his hands down onto the table as he stood up. "I don't care!" He picked up the glass cup he'd been drinking out of and tossed it at the younger man. "We don't have time! There are three other people out there with information that _someone in this building_ has leaked out! We need them gone! _And_ you still haven't located 666 yet! Now, could someone tell me anything _useful?_"

There was a small moment of silence before the clicking of high heels echoed around the room. "Well, well, Boris. Never thought I'd see the day when _you _would lose your charm." Her voice was light, and she spoke with a heavy Irish accent.

Boris let out an irritated groan and turned to stare at the woman with a frown on his face. "Olivia," he growled out. "What are you doing here? I thought you were working in the sister lab on that tracking device?"

Olivia tossed a thick piece of hair behind her, placing a hand on her left hip as she examined the nails of her right hand. "It's done."

Boris nearly felt his heart stop. "It's..._done?"_

"Yes, it is. I believe that I just told you that."

Boris let a small, _tiny_ smile appear on his face. "Then- that means that-"

"Yes," Olivia said, her eyes darkening, narrowing, as a small smile grew on her face. "That means that we can find 666. And then GRaCe will be able to run full force."

As they ended their conversation, the scientist that Boris had been yelling at previously came up to them, gulping as he did so. "We were able to get GRaCE back up and running. I believe that there is enough energy for one more assassination, but after that... We'll need more illusionists to keep her up and running."

Boris nodded his head. "We have another illusionist locked up already, and his scale was the highest we've seen as of yet. He'll do fine, and we might be able to get more energy out of him then we did the other illusionists. He'll have to do, at least until we find 666." He turned to Olivia. "When will you be able to start the tacking device up?"

"I'll be fully functional within the week."

"Good..." He turned back to the scientist. "Program the next target into GRaCE and set her out. I want this done _fast."_

[*]*[*]

"_They call it GRaCE, and I think that it stands for Genetic Removing and Cleansing Experiment, and what it does is it hunts down members of the Vongola and..._removes_ them.__ So far, I've heard that it's killed one."_

Fran shook his head, going over everything that Mukuro had told him. None of it had made any sense-

Until now.

"So, they've been kidnapping illusionists because this..._thing_ runs on the energy that illusions create?"

"_Yes. I'm not sure of how many they've kidnapped before me, but it is important that you let the Vongola know. I have a feeling that something bad has happened to the spy, Claire Spark. I believe that they sent GRaCE out to get her. You'll want to let the little Boss know about that."_

Fran nodded his head and stored everything in his memory. His Master wasn't acting like his normal self, but Fran bet that Mukuro felt that the entire lab was up to something that could hurt more then just the Vongola. "Are you going to be okay? It'll be a while before we can get you out."

"_I will be, but, listen little one, I'm more worried about you._"

"About me? And _you're _worried? They must have done something to you in here."

"_Little one, I'm not trying to be funny!"_

The tone of his Master's voice was enough to make Fran lose the sarcasm. "What is it?" He was suddenly feeling like the seven year old child he had been, before he'd been rescued from this hell hole.

"_They've mentioned lo-"_

Mukuro was suddenly cut off from finishing his sentence. Fran cocked his head to the side. "Master...?"

There was a sound like something being sucked through a drain, and the images all around Fran began to rush behind him, like a movie rewinding really fast. One second he was surrounded by white, the next second he was letting his eyes fly open and was staring at the ceiling fan in an actual hospital, laying on a hospital bed, with someone gripping his hand. He didn't even look to see who was with him, his mind on what had just happened.

"Our conversation was Hacked..."

_**-Vongola Headquarters.**_

_**1623 hours-**_

With a sigh Tsuna threw down the pen he'd been holding and gripped his head in his hands, letting his elbows rest against the hard wood of his desk.

"Are you _sure_ that _our_ team searched the entire room? There wasn't a file or anything that she'd been carrying, nor anything that would help us find who did this?"

Yamamoto shook his head, his weariness evident on his face. "I'm positive. The team searched everything in the room three times to make sure that they didn't miss anything before the cops got there. There was nothing."

Tsuna looked up at him with lidded eyes. "I have a hard time believing that this was some random mugging. Someone knew that she had information that was going to be passed over to me."

"It must have been really important," Lambo said from where he was sitting on a chair by the window.

Tsuna nodded before running a hand through his head. "Yamamoto, did you have your team search near the room and the alley, and not just in it?"

The guardian nodded. "They are searching it as we speak. They had to wait for the cops to leave before they were able to go in again."

"Good. Let me know if they find anything. I-" He cut off and began gnawing on his lip, a trait he'd kept from his childhood. "I think that I'm going to go and visit Fran."

Squalo, who had stayed for the meeting and to get information that the Varia would need, cocked his head to the side and frowned. "He wasn't awake as of this morning, from what Bel's told me. The doctors say it could be a while."

Tsuna nodded again, but he stood up anyway. "I know, but... He said something to me before he passed out, and I really want to talk to him about it. I have a feeling that he knows something about this."

"You think so?" Ryohei asked.

"Yes," he said, turning to Chrome. "When you went to visit him, were you able to find him in this...Limbo land?"

Chrome shook her head, holding on to the table. "I couldn't find him at all. It was like he wasn't there. If he was, something was blocking me from finding him."

Tsuna stared at her for a while before making up his mind. "Alright, I'm going to go and visit him, see if he's awake, and then talk to him. Gokudera, Yamamoto, I would like you two to come with me."

His two guardians and friends stood up and joined him by the door. He pointed to a folder he had on his desk. "I'd like the rest of you to go over that and see if there is anything that we missed." He reached for his coat that was hanging on the rack by the door before heading out of the room.

The ride to the hospital was quick, with no words spoken between any of the men in the car. Tsuna was going over what Fran had said in his head, the illusionist's voice echoing as though being spoken in a cave.

_"__The Hands...they eat you, and they keep eating you until there's nothing left."_

_What are these...hands? And this...machine that seemed to have Fran so spooked? _He didn't know much about the illusionist, but he knew enough to know that Fran was a person who didn't show his emotions. Hardly at all. So for Mukuro's apprentice to show his fear meant that the machine mentioned was something bad.

Tsuna didn't like having to deal with bad things.

"Sir," his driver called out from the front. "We're here."

Tsuna looked up to see that they were, indeed, at the hospital. He had his driver pull up to the main entrance and then told him that he would call him when they were ready to leave. "We might be here a while," he said while getting out of the car. "Why don't you go get lunch. I know you haven't eaten today."

He stood outside the main entrance and watched the car drive away before he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and looked up at his right hand man. "Are you ready to go, Tenth?"

Tsuna nodded, and the three men walked into the hospital in silence. Yamamoto was the first one to break it. "What do you think about the missing illusionists and the ones that have been found?"

Gokudera frowned. "I'm not entirely sure. I just know that I have a bad feeling about this. It just...doesn't feel _right_."

Tsuna sighed tiredly. "I know how you feel."

When they reached the room that Fran was located in, they found two people in the room other then the illusionist. Belphegor was sitting beside the bed, his head resting on his arms, and a hand holding on to Fran's. M.M was sitting over in the corner, reading some sort of book, looking bored. She glanced up at the men as they walked in. "Don't bother wasting your time; he's still out of it."

Tsuna raised an eyebrow as he glanced over at Fran. "It's been three days though."

M.M rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know," she said, closing her book and looking at them steadily. "What are you guys doing here? I thought that you would be trying to figure out what was going on with the illusionists? ...not that I care, but..."

Tsuna sent her a small and tired smile. He knew that she was worried about Mukuro. "Actually," he said, turning to look back at Fran. "I had some questions to ask Fran; he said something to me that was rather confusing, so I was going to ask him about it, but if he isn't awake yet then-"

M.M sighed. "I don't know if he'll be awake in a while. He had a seizure last night; the doctors say that he may have hit his head really hard when he fell, and he fell out of bed. They put him up on some sort of pain medication, and it's supposed to keep him under for a while."

Yamamoto stared at her. "I didn't know that you knew so much about medicine..."

She rolled her eyes again. "I had to know about it so that when one of my boys came home with infected wounds are sick I could take care of them."

Gokudera snickered. "You'll make a great mom some day."

She glared at him.

Tsuna sighed. "Well, if he isn't going to wake up, then I guess that we better get back. I have some other information that I could go over anyway." He waved goodbye to M.M and turned to leave the room. Gokudera snickered behind him. "What?"

His friend just smiled. "This whole, 'I have some questions for him' made you sound like a cop instead of our Boss."

Yamamoto agreed. "Yes, this investigation is feeling very police-like. I rather like it."

Tsuna shook his head, but he was smiling. "We can't just barge in if we have no idea of what is waiting for us." He paused. "But this _does_ feel kind of cool."

Gokudera slapped him on the back. "That's our Tenth! You are still a kid deep in your heart."

Tsuna laughed along with them, but when he turned his head he caught a glimpse of someone out of the window. He frowned._ Is that...?_

He grabbed Gokudera's arm. "Hey, you two go on ahead and get something to eat. I have a few things that I want to ask the doctor."

He waved the two on, watching them walk away from them, with Yamamoto trying to put an arm around the bomber, but Gokudera shoved him aside, growling. _Honestly, _he thought as he backtracked to the stairs that he'd passed earlier. _Those two just need to date already._

He took the stairs two at a time and eventually made it to the back of the hospital. There was a small garden in the back of hospital, where some of the terminal patients would sit and view the outside without being too far from the hospital. There was no one outside, except for a single form sitting on a bench, looking at the ground. Tsuna walked up to him and sat down beside him. "So," he said, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. "The one in the bed is an illusion?"

Fran nodded his head, still looking at the ground.

Tsuna continued. "Are you feeling any better?"

Fran then glanced up at him. "I feel like I could fly; I'm having the time of my life at the moment."

Tsuna smiled. "It's good that you're feeling better-"

"I said all of those things with _massive_ sarcasm quotes surrounding them," he deadpanned.

Tsuna closed his mouth. "Oh..."

They went silent, and soon Tsuna found himself growing cold. He turned to Fran, concerned because the illusionist was only wearing sweats and a t-shirt. "Do you want to go inside? It's sort of col-"

"When I was unconscious, I had a talk with my Master in Limbo."

Tsuna closed his mouth. He knew what Limbo was, and that illusionists could communicate with each other through it, but that wasn't what surprised him. "You talked with Mukuro? Is he okay?"

Fran nodded. "Yes, and he was able to tell me some things about the place he is in and the people running it. He wasn't able to tell me everything, though, because our conversation got Hacked."

Tsuna looked confused. "'Hacked'?"

"There are some illusionists who are hired to be put in temporary comas and they basically go through Limbo and stop conversations surrounding their employer. So when Master and I were talking, a Hacker belonging to the one who has Master captured must have heard us. He cut the contact between me and my Master, and I woke up."

"That's a really confusing concept," Tsuna said, looking really lost.

Fran shrugged, not bothering to try and help him understand.

Tsuna spoke up again after a minute. "Would you mind telling me what he told you? We may be able to save him faster if we knew everything."

Fran nodded, before turning to him. He looked really tired, Tsuna noted. "Yes, but first I'll need to tell you a story."

"A story?"

Fran turned away and looked up at the sky; he sighed a heavy sigh and closed his eyes for a minute before opening them and opening his mouth.

"It's a story about a boy who wasn't supposed to exist."

* * *

I hope that you all enjoyed, and that you liked it so much that you press that button below all of this babble. Ah, see? Your eyes went right to it. It's calling out to you, calling you by name, saying 'press me, press me'.

I'm kidding. But if you did enjoy, please let me know, and if you have feedback, then please, let me know what it is! I do enjoy feedback.

Lots of love,

UO


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